JOSEPHINE. Yes, sir.
BRIGNAC. Aha, Lucie! A kiss, quick! Congratulate me!
LUCIE. It went well?
BRIGNAC. Splendidly. How are you, Madeleine? Immensely! Ah, Catherine, it’s you. How are you?
CATHERINE. I was just going, sir.
BRIGNAC. I didn’t see your husband at the meeting.
CATHERINE. He wasn’t there, sir.
BRIGNAC. Ah, yes, yes. A regular fire-eater now, isn’t he? Well, I hope his Socialism is profitable.
CATHERINE. Well, we might—
BRIGNAC. Get along better? I thought so. [In a changed tone] Ah, Catherine, I used to know you and your family when your husband went more to church than to his club. You had faith then to help you bear up against your troubles! You put your trust in Providence! Yes, you brought up your children according to the Scriptures: ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’