"I should say that you had done little else thus far."
"Bah! bagatelles! To make things hum, a fellow must have the needful. Everything's so dear to-day! Those villains of wine merchants and restaurant keepers won't give credit any more!"
"They are wise."
"Why are they wise?"
"Because you have run up bills more than once that would never have been paid if I hadn't paid them."
"Who says I wouldn't have paid my debts? But a fellow must have time! Why are they in such a hurry?"
"You make me blush for you, Ballangier! Am I the person for you to make such speeches to?"
"Well, what's the matter now? Ain't I to be allowed to speak?"
"You might at least save yourself the trouble of lying to me, who know you too well! and who know what your conduct has always been! When a man who has no income desires to meet his obligations, he says to himself: 'I'll work and earn money.'—For, as I have told you a hundred times, there's no other way to obtain an honorable position in the world. You refuse to understand that everybody on this earth has to work, from the smallest to the greatest, from the humblest clerk to the highest functionary, from the artisan to the artist. The very rich men whose lot you envy—for the idle and lazy, the people who do nothing, naturally envy the lot of the rich—those who have great wealth have to busy themselves with investing it, managing their property, overlooking the conduct of the people they employ, regulating their expenses; and if they wish to retain their fortune, I assure you they don't pass their whole life enjoying themselves."
Ballangier lay back in his chair, shook the ashes out of his pipe, and looked at me with a bantering air, as he rejoined: