fice of personal liberty.
Horrible things will be said about me. Here is a young man of high
esteem in the world of fashion, pretty lucky at cards, of a passable
figure, less than twenty-eight years old, and he is going to marry the
daughter of a rich speculator!

Mericourt
What difference does it make?

De la Brive
It is slightly off color! But I am tired of a sham life. I have
learned at last that the only way to amass wealth is to work. But our
misfortune is that we find ourselves quick at everything, but not good
at anything! A man like me, capable of inspiring a passion and of
maintaining it, cannot become either a clerk or a soldier! Society has
provided no employment for us. Accordingly, I am going to set up
business with Mercadet. He is one of the greatest of schemers. You are
sure that he won't give less than a hundred and fifty thousand francs
to his daughter.

Mericourt
Judge yourself, my dear friend, from the style which Mme. Mercadet
puts on; you see her at all the first nights, in her own box, at the
opera, and her conspicuous elegance--

De la Brive
I myself am elegant enough, but--

Mericourt
Look round you here--everything indicates opulence--Oh! they are well
off!

De la Brive
Yet, it is a sort of middle-class splendor, something substantial
which promises well.

Mericourt
And then the mother is a woman of principle, of irreproachable
behavior. Can you possibly conclude matters to-day?

De la Brive
I have taken steps to do so. I won at the club yesterday sufficient to
go on with; I shall pay something on the wedding presents, and let the
balance stand.

Mericourt
Without reckoning my account, what is the amount of your debts?

De la Brive
A mere trifle! A hundred and fifty thousand francs, which my father-
in-law will cut down to fifty thousand. I shall have a hundred
thousand francs left to begin life on. I always said that I should
never become rich until I hadn't a sou left.

Mericourt
Mercadet is an astute man; he will question you about your fortune;
are you prepared?

De la Brive
Am I not the landed proprietor of La Brive? Three thousand acres in
the Landes, which are worth thirty thousand francs, mortgaged for
forty-five thousand and capable of being floated by a stock jobbing
company for some commercial purpose or other, say, as representing a
capital of a hundred thousand crowns! You cannot imagine how much this
property has brought me in.

Mericourt
Your name, yo