id remains eternally unfilled.

Mme. Mercadet
My dear, I know the people to whom you are indebted, and I am quite
certain that you will obtain nothing from them.

Mercadet
I shall obtain both time and money from them, rest assured of that.
(Mme. Mercadet is perturbed.) Don't you see, my dear, that creditors
when once they have opened their purses are like gamblers who continue
to stake their money in order to recover their first losses? (Growing
excited.) Yes! they are inexhaustible gold mines! If a man has no
father to leave him a fortune, he finds his creditors are so many
indefatigable uncles.

Justin (entering)
M. Goulard wishes to know if it is true that you desire to see him?

Mercadet (to his wife)
My message astounded him. (To Justin) Beg him to come in. (Justin goes
out.) Goulard! The most intractable of them all!--who has three
bailiffs in his employ. But fortunately he is a greedy though timid
speculator who engages in the most risky affairs and trembles all the
time they are being conducted.

Justin (announcing)
M. Goulard!

(Exit Justin.)

SCENE SIXTH

The same persons and Goulard.

Goulard (in anger)
Ah! you can be found, sir, when you want to be!

Mme. Mercadet (aside to her husband)
My dear, how angry he seems!

Mercadet (making a sign that she should be calm)
This is one of my creditors, my dear.

Goulard
Yes, and I sha'n't leave this house until you pay me.

Mercadet (aside)
You sha'n't leave this house until you give me some money--(Aloud) Ah!
you have persecuted me most unkindly--me, a man with whom you have had
such extensive dealings!

Goulard
Dealings which have not always been to my advantage.

Mercadet
All the more credit to you, for if advantage were the sole results of
business, everybody would become a money-lender.

Goulard
I hope you haven't asked me to come here, in order to show me how
clever you are! I know that you are cleverer than I am, for you have
got over me in money matters.

Mercadet
Well, money matters have some importance. (To his wife) Yes, yes, you
see in this man one who has hunted me as if I were a hare. Come, come,
Goulard, admit it, you have behaved badly. Anybody but myself would
have taken vengeance on you--for of course I could cause you to lose a
considerable sum of money.

Goulard
So you could, if you didn't pay me; but you shall pay me--your
obligations are now in the hands of the law.

Mme. M