Mercadet
Thank you.  Good-evening—­

Pierquin
Good-evening. (goes out)

Mercadet (ringing)
Justin!

Justin
Did you call, sir?

Mercadet
Ask M. de la Brive to speak with me for a moment. (Justin goes out.)

Mercadet
Here is a windfall of twenty-three thousand francs!  We shall be able
to arrange things famously for Julie’s marriage.

Sceneeighth

Mercadet, De la Brive and Justin.

De la Brive (to Justin, handing him a letter)
Here, deliver this letter.  And this is for yourself.

Justin (aside)
A louis!  Mademoiselle will be sure to have a happy home. (Exit.)

De la Brive
You wish to speak with me, my dear father-in-law?

Mercadet
Yes.  You see I already treat you without ceremony.  Please to take a
seat.

De la Brive (sitting on a sofa)
I am grateful for your confidence.

Mercadet
I am seeking information with regard to a debtor, who, like you, lives
in the neighborhood of Bordeaux.

De la Brive
I know every one in that district.

Mercadet
It is said he has relations there.

De la Brive
Relations!  I have none but an old aunt.

Mercadet (pricking up his ears)
An—­old aunt—?

De la Brive
Whose health—­

Mercadet (trembling)
Is—­is—­delicate?

De la Brive
And her income is forty thousand francs.

Mercadet (quite overcome)
Good Lord!  The very figure!

De la Brive
The Marchioness, you see, will be a good woman to have on hand.  I mean
the Marchioness—­

Mercadet (vehemently rushing at him)
Of Bourdillac, sir!

De la Brive
How is this?  Do you know her name?

Mercadet
Yes, and yours too!

De la Brive
The devil you do!

Mercadet You are head over ears in debt; your furniture is held in another man’s name; your old aunt has a pittance of six hundred francs; Pierquin, who is one of your smallest creditors, has forty-seven thousand francs in notes of hand from you.  You are Michonnin, and I am the idiotic nabob!

De la Brive (stretching himself at full length on the sofa)
By heavens!  You know just as much about it as I do!

Mercadet
Well—­I see that once more the devil has taken a hand in my game.

De la Brive (aside, rising to his feet)
The marriage is over!  I am no longer a socialist; I shall become a
communist.

Mercadet
And I have been just as easily deceived, as if I had been on the
Exchange.

De la Brive
Show yourself worthy of your reputation.

Mercadet
M. Michonnin, your conduct is more than blameworthy!

De la Brive
In what particular?  Did I not say that I had debts?

Mercadet
We’ll let that pass, for any one may have debts; but where is your
estate situated.