"Barely twenty thousand livres a year. It is a mere pittance nowadays."
"But your wife has the same."
"Yes, we have a million together; forty thousand a year. We cannot even keep a carriage on that."
They had, in the meantime, reached the last drawing-room, and before them lay the conservatory with its rare shrubs and plants. To their left, under a dome of palms, was a marble basin, on the edges of which four large swans of delftware emitted the water from their beaks.
The journalist stopped and said to himself: "This is luxury; this is the kind of house in which to live. Why can I not have one?"
His companion did not speak. He looked at her and thought once more: "If I only had taken her!"
Suddenly Suzanne seemed to awaken from her reverie. "Come," said she, dragging Georges through a group which barred their way, and turning him to the right. Before him, surrounded by verdure on all sides, was the picture. One had to look closely at it in order to understand it. It was a grand work—the work of a master—one of those triumphs of art which furnishes one for years with food for thought.
Du Roy gazed at it for some time, and then turned away, to make room for others. Suzanne's tiny hand still rested upon his arm. She asked:
"Would you like a glass of champagne? We will go to the buffet; we shall find papa there."
Slowly they traversed the crowded rooms. Suddenly Georges heard a voice say: "That is Laroche and Mme. du Roy."