Virginie
They will wait your time.

Mercadet
I shall settle with you all to-morrow.  You can go now. (They go out.)
A man who has his servants with him is like a minister who has the
press on his side!

Mme. Mercadet
And what of Pierquin?

Mercadet (showing the papers) All that I could extort from him is as follows.—­He will give me time, and this negotiable paper in exchange for stock.—­Also notes for forty-seven thousand francs, to be collected from a man named Michonnin, a gentleman broker, not considered very solvent, who may be a crook but has a very rich aunt at Bordeaux; M. de la Brive is from that district and I can learn from him if there is anything to be got out of it.

Mme. Mercadet
But the tradesmen will soon arrive.

Mercadet
I shall be here to receive them.  Now leave me, leave me, my dears.

(Exeunt the two ladies.)

Sceneeleventh

Mercadet, then Violette.

Mercadet (walking up and down) Yes, they will soon be here!  And everything depends upon that somewhat slippery friendship of Verdelin—­a man whose fortune I made!  Ah! when a man has passed forty he learns that the world is peopled by the ungrateful—­I do not know where all the benefactors have gone to.  Verdelin and I have a high opinion of each other.  He owes me gratitude, I owe him money, and neither of us pays the other.  And now, in order to arrange the marriage of Julie, my business is to find a thousand crowns in a pocket which pretends to be empty—­to find entrance into a heart in order to find entrance into a cash-box!  What an undertaking!  Only women can do such things, and with men who are in love with them.

Justin (without)
Yes, he is in.

Mercadet
It is he. (Violette appears.) Ah! my friend!  It is dear old Violette!

Violette This is the eleventh call within a week, my dear M. Mercadet, and my actual necessity has driven me to wait for you three hours in the street; I thought the truth was told me when I was assured that you were in the country.  But I came to-day—­

Mercadet
Ah!  Violette, old fellow, we are both hard up!

Violette
Humph!  I don’t think so.  For my part, I’ve pledged everything I could
put in the pawn-shop.

Mercadet
So have we.

Violette I have never reproached you with my ruin, for I believe it is your intention to enrich me, as well as yourself; but still, fine words butter no parsnips, and I am come to implore you to give me a small sum on account, and by so doing you will save the lives of a whole family.

Mercadet My dear old Violette, you grieve me deeply!  Be reasonable and I will share with you. (In a low voice) We have scarcely a hundred francs in the house, and even that is my daughter’s money.

Violette
Is it possible!  You, Mercadet, whom I have known so rich?