ll have a fine house in the Chaussee-d'Antin, and,
if you are not the wife of a Minister, you perhaps will be the wife of
a peer of France. I am sorry, my daughter, that I have no more to
offer you. Remember, you can have no choice in the matter, for M.
Minard is going to give you up.

Julie
Oh! he will never do that, papa. He will win your heart--

Mme. Mercadet
My dear, suppose he loves her?

Mercadet
He is deceiving her--

Julie
I shouldn't mind being always deceived in that way.

(A bell is heard without.)

Mme. Mercadet
Some one is ringing, and we have no one to open the door.

Mercadet
That is all right. Let them ring.

Mme. Mercadet
I am all the time thinking that Godeau may return.

Mercadet
After eight years without any news, you are still expecting Godeau!
You seem to me like those old soldiers who are waiting for the return
of Napoleon.

Mme. Mercadet
They are ringing again.

Mercadet
Julie, go and see who it is, and tell them that your mother and I have
gone out. If any one is shameless enough to disbelieve a young girl--
it must be a creditor--let him come in.

(Exit Julie.)

Mme. Mercadet
This love she speaks of, and which, at least on her side, is sincere,
disturbs me greatly.

Mercadet
You women are all too romantic.

Julie (returning)
It is M. Pierquin, papa.

Mercadet
A creditor and usurer--a vile and violent soul, who humors me because
he thinks me a man of resources; a wild beast only half-tamed yet
cowed by my audacity. If I showed fear he would devour me. (Going to
the door.) Come in, Pierquin, come in.

SCENE EIGHTH

The same persons and Pierquin.

Pierquin
My congratulations to you all. I hear that you are making a grand
marriage for your daughter. Mademoiselle is to marry a millionaire;
the report has already gone abroad.

Mercadet
A millionaire?--No, he has only nine hundred thousand francs, at the
most.

Pierquin
This magnificent prospect will induce a lot of people to give you
time. They are becoming devilishly tired of your talk about Godeau's
return. And I myself--

Mercadet
Were you thinking about having me arrested?

Julie
Arrested!

Mme. Mercadet (to Pierquin)
Ah! sir.

Pierquin
Now listen to me, you have had two years, and I never before let a
bond go over so long; but this marriage is a glorious invention and--

Mme. Mercadet
An invention!

Mercadet
Sir, my future son-in-law, M. de la Brive,