“Well,” returned Henri Léon, “would thirty thousand drowned citizens have counted for nothing? Would not the Ministry and the Government have experienced serious difficulty and real danger in the matter? Wouldn’t that have been a good day’s work? Look here, you are no politicians. You don’t care a damn whether you overthrow the Republic or not.”
“You’ll see that after the Exhibition,” said young Cadde with the simplicity of faith. “I myself smashed one of them at Longchamps for a start.”
“Ah, you smashed one of them, did you?” asked young Dellion with interest. “What sort of a specimen?”
“A mechanic. It would have been better if he had been a Senator, of course; but in a crowd you are more likely to chance on a workman.”
“What was your mechanic doing?” asked Léon.
“He was shouting ‘Hurrah for the Army!’ so I bashed him.”
Thereupon, fired with generous emulation, young Dellion told them that on hearing a Socialist-Dreyfusard shout for Loubet, he had bashed his jaw for him.
“All goes well!” said Jacques de Cadde.
“There are some things that might go better,” said Hugues Chassons des Aigues. “Don’t let us be too pleased with ourselves. On July the 14th, Loubet, Waldeck, Millerand and André each returned home safe and sound. They would not have returned had my advice been heeded. But no one will act, we are lacking in energy.”
Joseph Lacrisse answered gravely: