CAROLINE [in a lower voice] Only that I knew it.
COURTHEZON. You knew it?
CAROLINE [confused] Yes. But never mind about that.
MME. DUPONT [to Courthezon] And now you will become a rich man, eh, M. Courthezon?
COURTHEZON. Not all at once. I must first find someone who will buy my invention, or who will advance me money to push it for myself. But there’s plenty of time to think of all that: and whether I succeed or not, I am glad to have given twenty years of my life to inventing something that will make life a little easier for those who will come after me. And now I am going downstairs to the office to do a little work. You’ll send down that announcement, won’t you?
MME. DUPONT. I won’t forget.
COURTHEZON. Good evening, Madame Dupont. Good evening, Mlle. Caroline.
CAROLINE & MME. DUPONT. Good evening, M. Courthezon.
Courthezon goes out.
MME. DUPONT. Why were you so sure he had completed his invention?