"Well, well, this morning we little thought we should have such a fete
to-night."

"There's never more pleasure," said the notary Cardot, "than in just
such improvised balls. Don't talk to me of parties where everybody
stands on ceremony."

This opinion, we may remark, is a standing axiom among the
bourgeoisie.

"Well, for my part," said Madame Minard, "I prefer the dignified old
ways."

"We didn't mean that for you, madame; your salon is the chosen haunt
of pleasure," said Dutocq.

When "La Boulangere" came to an end, Theodose pulled Dutocq from the
sideboard where he was preparing to eat a slice of tongue, and said to
him:--

"Let us go; we must be at Cerizet's very early in the morning; we
ought both of us to think over that affair; it is not so easy to
manage as Cerizet seems to imagine."

"Why not?" asked Dutocq, bringing his slice of tongue to eat in the
salon.

"Don't you know the law?"

"I know enough of it to be aware of the dangers of the affair. If that