“I confess, it was not my finest hour,” said Courfeyrac,
collapsing onto the chair across from Marius; “I panicked, I prevaricated, I perjured
myself, and in short I told my father that I wouldn’t meet his eligible society
mademoiselle because you and I were passionately in love and soon to be married.”
Courfeyrac let out a great sigh and mournfully added, “The damnable old fellow
didn’t even disown me.”Marius paled; “But I’ve
just told my grandfather I’m going to ask Cosette to marry me whether he likes
it or not and I can’t pretend to be engaged to both of you at – Courfeyrac, why
are you smiling like that, this is serious!”