So much for the hall, so much for the lighting, so much for poor-rates, so much for the actors.

On that question of the actors he was firm.
"The best point about the affair," he said, "is that we shall have no leading man to pay.

Our leading man will be Bibi." (When Delobelle mentioned himself, he commonly called himself Bibi.) "A leading man is paid twenty thousand francs, and as we have none to pay, it's just as if you put twenty thousand francs in your pocket.

Tell me, isn't that true ?" Risler did not reply.

He had the constrained manner, the wandering eyes of the man whose thoughts are elsewhere.