“Ans.—There are two kinds of good,—eternal good and temporal good.”
Poiret [with a look of contempt]. “And does that sell for anything?”
Phellion. “I hope it will. It requires great application of mind to carry on a system of questions and answers; that is why I ask you to be quiet and let me think, for the answers—”
Thuillier [interrupting]. “The answers might be sold separately.”
Poiret. “Is that a pun?”
Thuillier. “No; a riddle.”
Phellion. “I am sorry I interrupted you” [he dives into his office desk]. “But” [to himself] “at any rate, I have stopped their talking about Monsieur Rabourdin.”
At this moment a scene was taking place between the minister and des Lupeaulx which decided Rabourdin’s fate. The general-secretary had gone to see the minister in his private study before the breakfast-hour, to make sure that La Briere was not within hearing.
“Your Excellency is not treating me frankly—”
“He means a quarrel,” thought the minister; “and all because his mistress coquetted with me last night. I did not think you so juvenile, my dear friend,” he said aloud.