time ago, were trying to control your servants
by kindness, but it is necessary to command and compel them, and to do
it briefly, like Napoleon.

Mme. Mercadet
How can you order them when you don't pay them?

Mercadet
You must pay them by a bluff.

Mme. Mercadet
Sometimes you can obtain by affection what is not attainable by--

Mercadet
By affection! Ah! Little do you know the age in which we live--To-day,
madame, wealth is everything, family is nothing; there are no
families, but only individuals! The future of each one is to be
determined by the public funds. A young girl when she needs a dowry no
longer appeals to her family, but to a syndicate. The income of the
King of England comes from an insurance company. The wife depends for
funds, not upon her husband, but upon the savings bank!--Debts are
paid, not to creditors, but to the country, through an agency, which
manages a sort of slave-trade in white people! All our duties are
arranged by coupons--The servants which we exchange for them are no
longer attached to their masters, but if you hold their money they
will be devoted to you.

Mme. Mercadet
Oh, sir, you who are so honorable, so upright, sometimes say things to
me which--

Mercadet
And what is said may also be done, that is what you mean, isn't it?
Undoubtedly I would do anything to save myself, for (he pulls out a
five-franc piece) this represents modern honor. Do you know why the
dramas that have criminals for their heroes are so popular? It is
because all the audience flatter themselves and say, "at any rate, I
am much better than that fellow!"

Mme. Mercadet
My dear!

Mercadet
For my part I have an excuse, for I am bearing the burden of my
partner's crime--of that fellow Godeau, who absconded, carrying with
him the cash box of our house!--And besides that, what disgrace is it
to be in debt? What man is there who does not owe his father his
existence? He can never repay that debt. The earth is constantly
bankrupt to the sun. Life, madame, is a perpetual loan! Am I not
superior to my creditors? I have their money, when they can only
expect mine. I do not ask anything of them, and yet they are
constantly importuning me.--A man who does not owe anything is not
thought about by any one, while my creditors take a keen interest in
me.

Mme. Mercadet
They take rather too much! To owe and to pay is well enough--but to
borrow without any prospect of returning--

Mercadet
You feel a great de