“Oh, a day and night soon pass away. Let us return to the object that brings me here.”
“What, that which brings you home to me? Is it not the desire of seeing a husband again from whom you have been separated for a week?” asked the mercer, piqued to the quick.
“Yes, that first, and other things afterward.”
“Speak.”
“It is a thing of the highest interest, and upon which our future fortune perhaps depends.”
“The complexion of our fortune has changed very much since I saw you, Madame Bonacieux, and I should not be astonished if in the course of a few months it were to excite the envy of many folks.”
“Yes, particularly if you follow the instructions I am about to give you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. There is good and holy action to be performed, monsieur, and much money to be gained at the same time.”
Mme. Bonacieux knew that in talking of money to her husband, she took him on his weak side. But a man, were he even a mercer, when he had talked for ten minutes with Cardinal Richelieu, is no longer the same man.