“Let us first look at the prospectus,” he said, preferring not to attack the question of figures at once; and with his eyeglasses on his nose, he began, in a declamatory tone, always upon the stage:  “When one considers coolly the decrepitude which dramatic art has reached in France, when one measures the distance that separates the stage of Moliere—­”

There were several pages like that.  Risler listened, puffing at his pipe, afraid to stir, for the reader looked at him every moment over his eyeglasses, to watch the effect of his phrases.  Unfortunately, right in the middle of the prospectus, the cafe closed.  The lights were extinguished; they must go.—­And the estimates?—­It was agreed that they should read them as they walked along.  They stopped at every gaslight.  The actor displayed his figures.  So much for the hall, so much for the lighting, so much for poor-rates, so much for the actors.  On that question of the actors he was firm.

“The best point about the affair,” he said, “is that we shall have no leading man to pay.  Our leading man will be Bibi.” (When Delobelle mentioned himself, he commonly called himself Bibi.) “A leading man is paid twenty thousand francs, and as we have none to pay, it’s just as if you put twenty thousand francs in your pocket.  Tell me, isn’t that true?”

Risler did not reply.  He had the constrained manner, the wandering eyes of the man whose thoughts are elsewhere.  The reading of the estimates being concluded, Delobelle, dismayed to find that they were drawing near the corner of the Rue des Vieilles-Haudriettes, put the question squarely.  Would Risler advance the money, yes or no?

“Well!—­no,” said Risler, inspired by heroic courage, which he owed principally to the proximity of the factory and to the thought that the welfare of his family was at stake.

Delobelle was astounded.  He had believed that the business was as good as done, and he stared at his companion, intensely agitated, his eyes as big as saucers, and rolling his papers in his hand.

“No,” Risler continued, “I can’t do what you ask, for this reason.”

Thereupon the worthy man, slowly, with his usual heaviness of speech, explained that he was not rich.  Although a partner in a wealthy house, he had no available funds.  Georges and he drew a certain sum from the concern each month; then, when they struck a balance at the end of the year they divided the profits.  It had cost him a good deal to begin housekeeping:  all his savings.  It was still four months before the inventory.  Where was he to obtain the 30,000 francs to be paid down at once for the theatre?  And then, beyond all that, the affair could not be successful.

“Why, it must succeed.  Bibi will be there!” As he spoke, poor Bibi drew himself up to his full height; but Risler was determined, and all Bibi’s arguments met the same refusal—­“Later, in two or three years, I don’t say something may not be done.”