Pierquin My congratulations to you all. I hear that you are making a grand marriage for your daughter. Mademoiselle is to marry a millionaire; the report has already gone abroad.
Mercadet A millionaire?—No, he has only nine hundred thousand francs, at the most.
Pierquin This magnificent prospect will induce a lot of people to give you time. They are becoming devilishly tired of your talk about Godeau's return. And I myself—
Mercadet
Were you thinking about having me arrested?
Julie
Arrested!
Mme. Mercadet (to Pierquin)
Ah! sir.
Pierquin Now listen to me, you have had two years, and I never before let a bond go over so long; but this marriage is a glorious invention and—
Mme. Mercadet
An invention!
Mercadet
Sir, my future son-in-law, M. de la Brive, is a young man—
Pierquin So that there is a real young man in the case? How much are you going to pay the young man?