Enter
Don Jose.
Suppress these raptures, Monsieur le Marquis, and listen to me. I have conducted hither your
niece, whom you lost some ten years ago.
My niece? Impossible. I have no niece, signor.
Oh, yes, you have : when I gave you the appointment of Grand Director of the Royal Menagerie, you promised to recollect whatever I wished. Stretch you memory a little, Monsieur le Marquis; I say you have a long lost niece.
Oh, certainly, Don Jose. Now you remind me, I recollect my pretty little niece well enough. Where is the dear little infant ?
Infant ! um. During ten years' absence she is wonderfully grown up, of course.
Certainly, she must be in such a lapse of time. Where is she? I'm impatient. Is she handsome, like the family ? Does she resemble me ?
Judge for yourself; here she is. Madame la Countess de Bazan. Madame—Monsieur le Marquis de Montefiore, your noble uncle.
But I thought Don Cæsar de Bazan, at seven o'clock this evening, was expected to—
Join the present parly, of course; and this way I perceive he approacheth. You will apprise the Marchioness, your wife, of the return of her lovely relative. I'll instantly and—