"How can he do that?"
"He is determined to thank the emperor for restoring his estates. He might thank the empress, and she wouldn't know what he was talking about. But the emperor knows everything. I have used all the arguments I dared to use against it, but he is a pig for stubbornness. For my sake, for Madame de Ferrier's sake, Lazarre, help me to get him harmlessly out of the Tuileries, without making a public scandal about the restitution of the land!"
"What scandal can there be, monsieur? And why shouldn't he thank Napoleon for giving him back his estates after the fortunes of revolution and war?"
"Because the emperor didn't do it. I bought them!"
"You!"
"Yes, I bought them. Come to that, they are my property!"
"Madame de Ferrier doesn't know this?"
"Certainly not. I meant to settle them on her. Saints and angels, boy, anybody could see what my intentions were!"
"Then she is as poor as she was in America?"
"Poorer. She has the Marquis de Ferrier!"