Baroness--We made him deputy on your recommendation. That was a good deal.
Marquis--Maréchal is an excellent recruit.
Baroness--So you say.
Marquis--How disgusted you are! An old subscriber to the Constitutionnel, a liberal, a Voltairean, who comes over to the enemy bag and baggage. What would you have? Monsieur Maréchal is not a man, my dear: it's the stout bourgeoisie itself coming over to us. I love this honest bourgeoisie, which hates the revolution, since there is no more to be gotten out of it; which wants to stem the tide which brought it, and make over a little feudal France to its own profit. Let it draw our chestnuts from the fire if it wants to. This pleasant sight makes me enjoy politics. Long live Monsieur Maréchal and his likes, bourgeois of the right divine. Let us heap these precious allies with honor and glory until our triumph ships them off to their mills again.
Baroness--Several of our deputies are birds of the same feather. Why choose the least capable for orator?
Marquis--It's not a question of capacity.
Baroness--You're a warm patron of Monsieur Maréchal!
Marquis--I regard him as a kind of family protégé. His grandfather was farmer to mine. I'm his daughter's guardian. These are bonds.
Baroness--You don't tell everything.
Marquis--All that I know.