SCENE FIFTH
Mercadet and Mme. Mercadet
Mercadet (watching Virginie as she goes out) That girl has a thousand crowns of our good money in the savings bank, so that we needn't worry about the kitchen for awhile.
Mme. Mercadet
Ah! sir, how can you stoop to such a thing as this?
Mercadet Madame, these are mere petty details; don't bother about the means to an end. You, a little time ago, were trying to control your servants by kindness, but it is necessary to command and compel them, and to do it briefly, like Napoleon.
Mme. Mercadet
How can you order them when you don't pay them?
Mercadet
You must pay them by a bluff.
Mme. Mercadet
Sometimes you can obtain by affection what is not attainable by—
Mercadet By affection! Ah! Little do you know the age in which we live—To-day, madame, wealth is everything, family is nothing; there are no families, but only individuals! The future of each one is to be determined by the public funds. A young girl when she needs a dowry no longer appeals to her family, but to a syndicate. The income of the King of England comes from an insurance company. The wife depends for funds, not upon her husband, but upon the savings bank!—Debts are paid, not to creditors, but to the country, through an agency, which manages a sort of slave-trade in white people! All our duties are arranged by coupons—The servants which we exchange for them are no longer attached to their masters, but if you hold their money they will be devoted to you.
Mme. Mercadet Oh, sir, you who are so honorable, so upright, sometimes say things to me which—