"After all, you are only charged with breach of trust?"
"That is all. Do you take me for a thief, Maître Bourdin?"
"Oh, dear general! I meant to say there was nothing very serious in this."
"Why, I don't look very down, do I, my boy?"
"By no means; never saw you looking better. Indeed, if you are found guilty, you will only have two or three months, imprisonment and twenty-five francs fine. I know the law, you see!"
"And these two or three months I shall contrive, I know, to pass quietly in some infirmary. I have a deputy at my elbow."
"Oh, then, you're all right."
"Yes, Bourdin; and I can scarcely help laughing to think what little good the fools who put me here have done themselves,—they will not recover a sou of the money they claim. They compel me to sell my post,—what do I care?"
"True, general; it is only so much the worse for them."
"Yes, my boy. And now for the subject on which I was anxious to see you, Bourdin; it is a very delicate affair,—there is a lady in the case!" said Maître Boulard, with mysterious self-complacency.