"Adhémar!"
"Where are you going, my dear Lucien?"
"I am going—upon my word! I don't know where I am going. I am walking about at random—I am so unhappy! so desperate!"
"Really? Come, tell me your troubles, my poor Lucien. I am none too cheerful myself, by the way. So we will share our sorrows; that always helps a little. Hasn't your invention, your little business enterprise, succeeded?"
"Why, yes, it is going on very well, and that is just the reason I am in such despair."
"I don't understand you."
"As my business seemed to be prospering, I thought I might hope that Juliette's hand would be given to me at last. But, instead of that, Monsieur Mirotaine has turned me out of his house and forbidden me ever to go there again, all because Dodichet conceived the unfortunate idea of helping along my suit by introducing to the Mirotaines a pretended millionaire Italian count, who was to propose for Juliette; they got themselves invited to dinner, and Monsieur Mirotaine went to some expense to entertain them. Then Dubotté arrived and laid bare the fraud. Monsieur Mirotaine saw that they had made a fool of him, and he is convinced that I was in the plot with Dodichet; hence his anger against me, and the prohibition to go to his house again!"
"What a devil of a fellow that Dodichet is! I remember perfectly that you definitely forbade him to play one of his wretched jokes on this Mirotaine."
"He meant to do me a service, so I can't be angry with him. And yet, he is the cause of my being turned out of the house."
"That old miser's anger will cool down, if you succeed in your undertakings. His daughter will make him listen to reason."