A Catty Insult: Rejection!

This, from Madame Hulot to Monsieur Crevel in Balzac’s great novel Cousin Bette. Crevel is trying to romance Hulot but she is simply not having it: “Listen Monsieur Crevel, you are 50 years old. That’s ten years less than Monsieur Hulot, I know. But at my age a woman’s folly has to be justified by good looks, or youth, or fame, or ability, or some of the brilliance that dazzles us to such an extent that we forget everything, even our age. You may have an income of fifty thousand livres, but your age outweighs your fortune. So, of everything that a woman requires, you possess nothing at all.”