"It may not interfere with your office work now, but it very soon will."
"That will be the time, then, for you to be anxious."
"It is really no affair of mine," said M. Oudard. "I simply and solely convey the views of the chief director."
"Of M. de Broval?"
"Yes, of M. de Broval."
"I thought M. de Broval pretended to foster literature."
"Literature? Perhaps he does ... but do you call la Chasse et l'Amour and la Noce et l'Enterrement literature?"
"Most surely not, monsieur. But my name was not put on the bills at the Ambigu, where la Chasse et l'Amour was played, and it will not be put on the bills of the theatre, whatever it may be, which may accept la Noce et l'Enterrement."
"Still, if you are ashamed to own those productions, why make them?"
"First, monsieur, because at present I do not feel myself able to do better, and because, such as they are, they bring comfort to our poverty ... yes, monsieur, to our poverty—I do not shrink from the truth. One day, you somehow learnt that I had sat up several nights to copy some stage plays which brought in four francs an act, and that, under the same conditions, I copied out M. Théaulon's comedy, the Indiscret,—well, you complimented me then on my pluck."