Minard
You bring back life to me.

Mercadet Well, I suppose that is true, but so much the better, for I am very fond of you.  You are simple, honorable.  I am touched, I am delighted.  I am even charmed.  Ah!  Let me once get hold of my six hundred thousand francs and—­(Sees Pierquin enter) Here they come—­

Sceneeleventh

The same persons, Pierquin and Verdelin.

Mercadet (leading Pierquin to the front of the stage without perceiving
Verdelin)
Is it all right?

Pierquin (in some embarrassment)
It is all right.  The stock is ours.

Mercadet (joyfully)
Bravo!

Verdelin (approaching Mercadet)
Good-day!

Mercadet
What!  Verdelin—­

Verdelin I find out that you have bought the stock before me, and that now I shall have to pay very much higher than I expected; but it is all right, it was well managed, and I am compelled to cry, “Hail to the King of the Exchange, Hail to the Napoleon of Finance!” (He laughs derisively.)

Mercadet (somewhat abashed)
What does he mean?

Verdelin
I’m only repeating what you said yesterday—­

Mercadet
What I said?

Pierquin
The fact of it is, Verdelin does not believe in the return of Godeau—­

Minard
Ah, sir!

Mercadet
Is there any doubt about it?

Verdelin (ironically) Doubt about it!  There is more than doubt about it.  I at once concluded that this so-called return was the bold stroke that you spoke of yesterday.

Mercadet
I—­(Aside) Stupid of me!

Verdelin I concluded that, relying upon the presence of this fictitious Godeau, you made purchases with the idea of paying on the rise, which would follow to-morrow, and that to-day you have actually not a single sou—­

Mercadet
You had imagined all that?

Verdelin (approaching the fireplace) Yes, but when I saw outside that triumphal post-chaise—­that model of Indian manufacture, and I realized that it was impossible to find such a vehicle in the Champs-Elysees, all my doubts disappeared and—­ But hand him over the bonds, M. Pierquin!

Pierquin
The—­bonds—­it happens that—­

Mercadet (aside)
I must bluff, or I am lost! (Aloud) Certainly, produce the bonds.

Pierquin
One moment—­if what this gentleman has said is true—­

Mercadet (haughtily)
M. Pierquin!

Minard
But, gentlemen—­M.  Godeau is here—­I have seen him—­I have talked with
him.

Mercadet (to Pierquin)
He has talked with him, sir.

Pierquin (to Verdelin)
The fact of it is, I have seen him myself.

Verdelin
I don’t doubt it!  By the bye, on what vessel did our friend Godeau say
he arrived?

Mercadet
By what vessel?  It was by the—­by the Triton—­

Verdelin
How careless the English newspapers are.  They have published the
arrival of no other English mail packet but the Halcyon.