end when
he has the gout;--that's why I hide.

_Baroness_--I shall rush off to reassure your friend.

_Marquis_--They are not so anxious as all that. Tell me something of
them.

_Baroness_--But somebody's waiting in my carriage.

_Marquis_--I'll send to ask him up.

_Baroness_--But I'm not sure that you know him.

_Marquis_--His name?

_Baroness_--I met him by chance.

_Marquis_--And you brought him by chance. [_He rings_.] You are a mother
to me. [_To Dubois_.] You will find an ecclesiastic in Madame's
carriage. Tell him I'm much obliged for his kind alacrity, but I think I
won't die this morning.

_Baroness_--O Marquis! what would our friends say if they heard you?

_Marquis_--Bah! I'm the black sheep of the party, its spoiled child;
that's taken for granted. Dubois, you may say also that Madame begs the
Abbe to drive home, and to send her carriage back for her.

_Baroness_--Allow me--

_Marquis_--Go along, Dubois.--Now you are my prisoner.

_Baroness_--But, Marquis, this is very unconventional.

_Marquis [kissing her hand_]--Flatterer! Now sit down, and let's talk
about serious things. _[Taking a newspaper from the table_.] The gout
hasn't kept me from reading the news. Do you know that poor Deodat's
death is a serious mishap?

_Baroness_--What a loss to our cause!

_Marquis_--I have wept for him.

_Baroness_--Such talent! Such spirit! Such sarcasm!

_Marquis_--He was the hussar of orthodoxy. He will live in history as
the angelic pamphleteer. And now that we have settled his noble ghost--

_Baroness_--You speak very lightly about it, Marquis.

_Marquis_--I tell you I've wept for him.--Now let's think of some one to
replace him.

_Baroness_--Say to succeed him. Heaven doesn't create two such men at
the same time.

_Marquis_--What if I tell you that I have found such another? Yes,
Baroness, I've unearthed a wicked, cynical, virulent pen, that spits and
splashes; a fellow who would lard his own father with epigrams for a
consideration, and who would eat him with salt for five francs more.

_Baroness_--Deodat had sincere convictions.

_Marquis_--That's because he fought for them. There are no more
mercenaries. The blows they get convince them. I'll give this fellow a
week to belong to us body and soul.

_Baroness_--If you haven't any other proofs of his faithfulness--

_Marquis_--But I have.

_Baroness_--Where from?

_Marquis_--Never mind. I have it.

_Baroness_--And why do you wai