Pierquin
Five—six thousand.
Mercadet If you wish to play cards, keep to the gambling table. Why do you wish to recover this paper?
Pierquin Michonnin has insulted me. I wish to take vengeance on him; to send him to jail.
Mercadet (rising) Six thousand francs worth of vengeance! You are not a man to indulge in luxuries of that kind.
Pierquin
I assure you—
Mercadet Come, now, my friend, consider that for a satisfactory defamation of character the code won't charge you more than five or six hundred francs, and the tax on a blow is only fifty francs—
Pierquin
I swear to you—
Mercadet Has this Michonnin come into a legacy? And are the forty-seven thousand francs of these vouchers actually worth forty-seven thousand francs? You should post me on this subject and then we'll cry halves!
Pierquin
Very well, I agree. The fact of it is, Michonnin is to be married.
Mercadet
What next! And with whom, pray?