Goulard (looking through the pane of glass above the mantel)
A carriage!

Pierquin (doing the same)
A post-chaise!

Violette (doing the same)
Gentlemen, a post-chaise is at the door.

Mercadet (aside)
My dear De la Brive could not have arrived at a better moment!

Goulard
See how dusty it is!

Violette
And battered to the very hood!  It must have come from the heart of the
Indies, to be as battered as that.

Mercadet (mildly)
You don’t know what you are talking about, Violette!  Why, my good
fellow, people don’t arrive from the Indies by land.

Goulard
But come and see for yourself, Mercadet; a man has stepped out—­

Pierquin
Enveloped in a large pelisse—­do come—­

Mercadet
No—­pardon me.  The joy—­the excitement—­I—­

Violette
He carries a chest.  Oh! what a huge chest!  Gentlemen, it is Godeau!  I
recognize him by the chest.

Mercadet
Yes—­I was expecting Godeau.

Goulard
He has come back from Calcutta.

Pierquin
With a fortune.

Mercadet
Of incalculable extent!

Violette
What have I been saying?

(Violette goes in silence to Mercadet and grasps his hand.  The two others follow his example, and then all the creditors form a ring round Mercadet.)

Mercadet (with seeming emotion)
Oh!  Gentlemen—­my friends—­my dear comrades—­my children!

Sceneseventh

The same persons and Mme. Mercadet.

Mme. Mercadet (entering from the left)
Mercadet!  My dear!

Mercadet (aside)
It is my wife.  I thought that she had gone out.  She is going to ruin
everything!

Mme. Mercadet
My dear!  I see that you don’t know what has happened?

Mercadet
I?  No, I don’t—­if I—­

Mme. Mercadet
Godeau is returned.

Mercadet
Ah!  You say? (Aside) I wonder if she suspects—­

Mme. Mercadet
I have seen him—­I have spoken to him.  It was I who saw him first.

Mercadet (aside)
De la Brive has won her over!  What a man he is! (To Mme. Mercadet,
low) Good, my dear wife, good!  You will be our salvation.

Mme. Mercadet
But you don’t understand me, it is really he, it is—­

Mercadet (in a low voice)
Hush! (Aloud) I must—­gentlemen—­I must go and welcome him.

Mme. Mercadet No—­wait, wait a little, my dear; poor Godeau has overtaxed his strength—­scarcely had he reached my apartment when fatigue, excitement and a nervous attack overcame him—­

Mercadet
Really! (Aside) How well she does it!

Violette
Poor Godeau!

Mme. Mercadet “Madame,” he said to me, “go and see your husband.  Bring me back his pardon; I do not wish to see him face to face, until I have repaired the past.”