Laurent [entering]. “Monsieur Fleury is requested to go to the secretary’s office.”
All the clerks. “Done for!”
Fleury [leaving the room]. “I don’t care; I am offered a place as responsible editor. I shall have all my time to myself to lounge the streets or do amusing work in a newspaper office.”
Bixiou. “Dutocq has already made them cut off the head of that poor Desroys.”
Colleville [entering joyously]. “Gentlemen, I am appointed head of this bureau.”
Thuillier. “Ah, my friend, if it were I myself, I couldn’t be better pleased.”
Bixiou. “His wife has managed it.” [Laughter.]
Poiret. “Will any one tell me the meaning of all that is happening here to-day?”
Bixiou. “Do you really want to know? Then listen. The antechamber of the administration is henceforth a chamber, the court is a boudoir, the best way to get in is through the cellar, and the bed is more than ever a cross-cut.”
Poiret. “Monsieur Bixiou, may I entreat you, explain?”