Pierquin
I will fly.  Good-bye. (Exit.)

Sceneninth

Mercadet, then Justin.

Mercadet How well everything is going on, when we consider our recent complications!  When Mahomet had three reliable friends (and it was hard to find them) the whole world was his!  I have now won over as my allies all my creditors, thanks to the pretended arrival of Godeau.  And I gain eight days, which means fifteen, with regard to actual payment.  I shall buy three hundred thousand francs’ worth of Basse-Indre before Verdelin.  And when Verdelin asks for some of that stock, he will find it has risen, for a demand will have raised it above the current quotation, and I shall make at one stroke six hundred thousand francs.  With three hundred thousand I will pay my creditors and show myself a Napoleon of finance. (He struts up and down.)

Justin (from the back of the stage)
Sir—­

Mercadet
What is it—­what do you want, Justin?

Justin
Sir—­

Mercadet
Go on!  Tell me.

Justin
M. Violette has offered me sixty francs if I will let him speak with
M. Godeau.

Mercadet
Sixty francs. (Aside) He fleeced me out of them.

Justin
I am sure, sir, that you wouldn’t like me to lose such a present.

Mercadet
Let him have his way with you.

Justin
Ah! sir, but—­M.  Goulard also—­and the others—­

Mercadet
Do as you like—­I give them over into your hands.  Fleece them well!

Justin
I’ll do my best.  Thank you, sir.

Mercadet
Let them all see Godeau. (Aside) De la Brive is well able to look
after himself. (Aloud) But, between ourselves, keep Pierquin away. 
(Aside) He would recognize his dear friend, Michonnin.

Justin
I understand, sir.  Ah! here is M. Minard. (Exit.)

Scenetenth

Mercadet and Minard.

Minard (coming forward)
Ah, sir!

Mercadet
Well, M. Minard, and what brings you here?

Minard
Despair.

Mercadet
Despair?

Minard
M. Godeau has come back; and they say that you are now a millionaire!

Mercadet
Is that the cause of your despair?

Minard
Yes, sir.

Mercadet Well, you are a strange fellow!  I disclose to you the fact of my ruin and you are delighted.  You learn that good fortune has returned to me and you are overwhelmed with despair!  And all the while you wish to enter into my family!  Yet you act like my enemy—­

Minard
It is just my love that makes your good fortune so alarming to me; I
fear all the while that you will now refuse me the hand—­

Mercadet Of Julie?  My dear Adolphe, all men of business have not put their heart in their money-bags.  Our sentiments are not always to be reckoned by debit and credit.  You offered me the thirty thousand francs that you possessed—­I certainly have no right to reject you on account of certain millions. (Aside) Which I do not possess!