e sparrows when I haven't got to
concern myself about the fate of sweated women.

MADAME NERISSE. Well, of course. That's the article we've got to write.

CAROLINE LEGRAND. Of course.

MADAME NERISSE. We'll write it in the form of a letter to a member of
parliament--it had better be a man, because we're going to put him in
the wrong--a member of parliament who wants to form the league I
suggested. What you said about the sparrows will be a splendid tag at
the end. Will you write it?

CAROLINE LEGRAND. Rather! It's lucky you don't stick to your ideas very
obstinately, because they can sometimes be improved upon. I think I
shall write your paper for you in future.

MADAME NERISSE. Go along and send me in Mademoiselle Gregoire and Madame
Chanteuil. They'll bother you, and I want them here.

CAROLINE LEGRAND. To write about "Soap of the Sylphs." _I_ know.

_She goes out to the right._

MADAME NERISSE. She's a little mad, but she really has good ideas
sometimes.

_The page boy comes in._

BOY [_to Madame Nerisse_] The gentlemen are there, Monsieur Cazares and
another gentleman.

MADAME NERISSE. Are they with Monsieur Nerisse?

BOY. Yes, Madame.

MADAME NERISSE. Very well, I'll go. [_The boy goes out. She speaks to
the others_] Divide the work between you. [_To Madame Chanteuil and
Mademoiselle Gregoire, who come in from the right_] There's lots of work
to be done. [_She goes out to the left_]

MADEMOISELLE DE MEURIOT. We'd better sit down. [_She sits down and says
what follows whilst they are taking their places round the table. She
takes up the first letter_] This is for the advertising department. Is
Mademoiselle Baron here?

THERESE. No, poor little thing. She's trudging round Paris to try and
get hold of a few advertisements.

MADAME CHANTEUIL. It's a dreadful job, trying to get advertisements for
a paper that three-quarters of the people she goes to have never heard
of. It gives me the shivers to remember what I had to go through myself
over that job.

THERESE. And poor little Baron is so shy!

MADEMOISELLE DE MEURIOT. She earned only fifty francs all last month.

MADEMOISELLE GREGOIRE. I know her, I met her lately; she told me she was
in luck, that she had an appointment with the manager of the Institut de
Jouvence.

MADAME CHANTEUIL. And she thinks she's in luck!

MADEMOISELLE GREGOIRE. It appears that that's a place where you can do
quite good business.

MADAME CHANTEUIL [_grav