Moliere was reversed; here was Tartuffe inquiring for Orgon.
“Thuillier began by not being very hostile to you; but it now seems that the seizure business has taken a good turn, and having less need of you he is getting drawn into his sister’s waters; and if the tendency continues, I haven’t a doubt that he’ll soon come to think you deserving of hanging.”
“Well, I’m out of it all,” said la Peyrade, “and if anybody ever catches me in such a mess again!—Well, adieu, my friends,” he added. “And you, Cerizet, as to what we were speaking about, activity, safety, and discretion!”
When la Peyrade reached the courtyard of the municipal building, he was accosted by Madame Lambert, who was lying in wait for him.
“Monsieur wouldn’t believe, I am sure,” she said, in a deprecating tone, “the villainous things that Monsieur Cerizet said about me; monsieur knows it was the little property I received from my uncle in England that I placed in his hands.”
“Yes, yes,” said la Peyrade, “but you must understand that with all these rumors set about by your master’s relatives the prize of virtue is desperately endangered.”
“If it is God’s will that I am not to have it—”
“You ought also to understand how important it is for your interests to keep secret the other service which I did for you. At the first appearance of any indiscretion on your part that money, as I told you, will be peremptorily returned to you.”
“Oh! monsieur may be easy about that.”
“Very well; then good-bye to you, my dear,” said la Peyrade, in a friendly tone.