Michonnin, a gentleman broker, not considered very solvent, who may be
a crook but has a very rich aunt at Bordeaux; M. de la Brive is from
that district and I can learn from him if there is anything to be got
out of it.

Mme. Mercadet
But the tradesmen will soon arrive.

Mercadet
I shall be here to receive them. Now leave me, leave me, my dears.

(Exeunt the two ladies.)



SCENE ELEVENTH


Mercadet, then Violette.


Mercadet (walking up and down)
Yes, they will soon be here! And everything depends upon that somewhat
slippery friendship of Verdelin--a man whose fortune I made! Ah! when
a man has passed forty he learns that the world is peopled by the
ungrateful--I do not know where all the benefactors have gone to.
Verdelin and I have a high opinion of each other. He owes me
gratitude, I owe him money, and neither of us pays the other. And now,
in order to arrange the marriage of Julie, my business is to find a
thousand crowns in a pocket which pretends to be empty--to find