Mercadet and Mme. Mercadet


Mercadet (watching Virginie as she goes out)
That girl has a thousand crowns of our good money in the savings bank,
so that we needn't worry about the kitchen for awhile.

Mme. Mercadet
Ah! sir, how can you stoop to such a thing as this?

Mercadet
Madame, these are mere petty details; don't bother about the means to
an end. You, a little time ago, were trying to control your servants
by kindness, but it is necessary to command and compel them, and to do
it briefly, like Napoleon.

Mme. Mercadet
How can you order them when you don't pay them?

Mercadet
You must pay them by a bluff.

Mme. Mercadet
Sometimes you can obtain by affection what is not attainable by--

Mercadet
By affection! Ah! Little do you know the age in which we live--To-day,
madame, wealth is everything, family is nothing; there are no