I meant to say there was nothing serious in all this; after
all, there is not enough to whip a cat."
"Have I a despairing look, my good fellow?"
"Not at all; I never saw you look more cheerful. Indeed, if you are
condemned, you will only have two or three months' imprisonment, and
twenty-five francs fine. I know my code."
"And these two or three months I shall be allowed, I am sure, to pass at my
ease in a lunatic asylum. I have one deputy under my thumb."
"Oh! then your affair is sure."
"Hold, Bourdin, I can hardly keep from laughing; these fools who have sent
me here will gain much by it! They shall never see a sou of the money they
claim. They force me to sell my commission--all the same. I am aware of the
duty I owe my predecessor. You see it is these muffs who will be the geese
of the farce, as Robert Macaire says."
"That produces the same effect on me, general; so much the worse for them."
"My good fellow, let us come to the subject which made me beg you to come
here; it is touching a delicate mission concerning a female," said Boulard,
with a mysterious air.
"Ah! rogue of a general, I recognize you there! What is it? Count on me."
"I interest myself particularly in a young actress of the
Folies-Dramatiques; I pay her board, and, in exchange, she pays me in
return--at least, I think so; for, my good fellow, you know, the absent are
often in the wrong.
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