Volume III Part 36 (1/2)
”Well! speak then.”
”It is a secret.”
”So much the more reason for telling it.”
”Your word and honor that you won't mention it?”
”On the heads of our children, we give it.”
”And besides, let us remember what the great king Louis XIV. majestically said to the Doge of Venice before his a.s.sembled court:
”'When a secret's told a clerk, Its exposure he'll not burk!'”
”Good! there is Chalamel with his proverbs!”
”I demand the head of Chalamel!”
”Proverbs are the wisdom of nations; it is on that account I require your secret.”
”Come, none of your nonsense. I tell you the head clerk made me a promise to speak of it to no one.”
”Yes; but he did not say that you should not tell it to every one?”
”It shall not go out of the office. Go on.”
”He is dying with desire to tell us the secret.”
”Well! the governor is about selling his notary's business. At this present moment, perhaps, it is done.”
”Nonsense!”
”Here is news!”
”Let us see, without charge, who charges himself with the charge which he discharges?”
”Tus.h.!.+ how insupportable Chalamel is with his riddles.”
”Do you think I know to whom he sells it?”
”If he sells it, it is because, perhaps, he wishes to come out, give b.a.l.l.s, routs, in the gay world. After all, there is something in it.”
”I think so, indeed! The head clerk spoke of more than a million, including the value of the business.”
”More than a million!”
”It is said that he has been gambling in stocks secretly with Commandant Robert, and that he has made much money.”
”Not to speak of his living like a curmudgeon.”
”But these misers, when once they begin to spend money, become as prodigal as they were once mean.”