“It is something quite new.”
“But is it just?”
“Mon Dieu! Concessions might, doubtless, be granted, but then others would immediately be made. Their grievances would never come to an end. We are only at the beginning. Is it wise to yield all at once?”
“Why not give them the impression that we wish them well?”
“They would look upon it as a sign of weakness.”
Marcel remained pensive.
“So the weavers of Troyes are on strike, and are inciting our workmen to follow their example?”
“They were at Sainte-Savine yesterday, and to-day they are at Ars. They made sufficient noise; you must have been very busy not to have heard them.”
“I was away from home,” said Marcel, embarrassed.
“All the same had you been here; that would have made no difference; their plan of action is fixed. They would have insulted you, as they did me, that is all.”