‘Yes,’ replied the other equally coldly, ‘Mais c’est provisoire. Serge, they say, will be put in his place.’
‘Aha!’ filtered the first through his teeth.
‘Ah, yes,’ filtered the second.
‘I can’t understand,’ began the general who had hummed the song, ‘I can’t understand what induced Paul to defend himself—to bring forward all sorts of reasons. Certainly, he crushed the merchant pretty well, il lui a fait rendre gorge ... well, and what of it? He may have had his own motives.’
‘He was afraid ... of being shown up in the newspapers,’ muttered some one.
The irritable general grew hot.
‘Well, it is too much! Newspapers! Shown up! If it depended on me, I would not let anything be printed in those papers but the taxes on meat or bread, and announcements of sales of boots or furs.’
‘And gentlemen’s properties up for auction,’ put in Ratmirov.
‘Possibly under present circumstances.... What a conversation, though, in Baden au Vieux-Château.’