"I am keeping the Opera, the Italiens, and the Opera-Comique," put in
Vernou.
"And how about me? Am I to have no theatres at all?" asked the second stranger.
"Oh well, Hector can let you have the Varietes, and Lucien can spare you the Porte Saint-Martin.—Let him have the Porte Saint-Martin, Lucien, he is wild about Fanny Beaupre; and you can take the Cirque-Olympique in exchange. I shall have Bobino and the Funambules and Madame Saqui. Now, what have we for to-morrow?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
"Gentlemen, be brilliant for my first number. The Baron du Chatelet and his cuttlefish bone will not last for a week, and the writer of Le Solitaire is worn out."
"And 'Sosthenes-Demosthenes' is stale too," said Vernou; "everybody has taken it up."
"The fact is, we want a new set of ninepins," said Frederic.
"Suppose that we take the virtuous representatives of the Right?" suggested Lousteau. "We might say that M. de Bonald has sweaty feet."