"Because we've come out on strike!"
"On strike!" repeated Marianne, shuddering at that terrific word. "Then you are not going to work—will have no more wages to receive; but what is to become of us, then? How are we to live?"
"Oh! don't worry yourself about that," replied the blacksmith, feeling a little uneasy in spite of his words; "we have funds, we shall all get two francs a day."
"Two francs—and four children!"
"You have some savings?"
"And when they are gone?"
"Oh, don't bother me!—so long as the workman gets his rights. We've had enough of this miserable existence."
"Miserable on what you have been earning?" said Marianne. "Look about you. In this very house, on the first floor, there is a family: the husband alone works, and has a salary of only eighteen hundred francs a year."
"Only eighteen hundred!"
"That's five francs a day, and you earn double that."