When Hulot went through his anteroom, full of visitors, he saw Marneffe’s colorless face in a corner, and sent for him before any one else.
“What do you want of me, my dear fellow?” said the Baron, disguising his anxiety.
“Monsieur le Directeur, I am the laughing-stock of the office, for it has become known that the chief of the clerks has left this morning for a holiday, on the ground of his health. He is to be away a month. Now, we all know what waiting for a month means. You deliver me over to the mockery of my enemies, and it is bad enough to be drummed upon one side; drumming on both at once, monsieur, is apt to burst the drum.”
“My dear Marneffe, it takes long patience to gain an end. You cannot be made head-clerk in less than two months, if ever. Just when I must, as far as possible, secure my own position, is not the time to be applying for your promotion, which would raise a scandal.”
“If you are broke, I shall never get it,” said Marneffe coolly. “And if you get me the place, it will make no difference in the end.”
“Then I am to sacrifice myself for you?” said the Baron.
“If you do not, I shall be much mistaken in you.”
“You are too exclusively Marneffe, Monsieur Marneffe,” said Hulot, rising and showing the clerk the door.
“I have the honor to wish you good-morning, Monsieur le Baron,” said Marneffe humbly.
“What an infamous rascal!” thought the Baron. “This is uncommonly like a summons to pay within twenty-four hours on pain of distraint.”