Verdelin That your pocket-book is full of the notes of hand signed by your son- in-law. And Pierquin tells me that your creditors are exasperated, and are to meet to-night at the house of Goulard to conclude measures for united action against you to-morrow!
Mercadet
To-night! To-morrow! Ah! I hear the knell of bankruptcy sound!
Verdelin
Yes, to-morrow they are going to send a prison cab for you.
Mme. Mercadet and Julie
God help us!
Mercadet
I see the carriage, the hearse of the speculator, carrying me to
Clichy!
Verdelin
They wish, as far as possible, to rid the Exchange of all sharpers!
Mercadet They are fools, for in that case they will turn it into a desert! And so I am ruined! Expelled from the Exchange with all the sequelae of bankruptcy,—shame, beggary! I cannot believe it—it is impossible!
De la Brive
Believe me, sir, that I regret having been in some degree—
Mercadet (looking him in the face) You! (in a low voice to him) Listen to me: you have hurried on my destruction, but you have it in your power to help me to escape.
De la Brive
On what conditions?