He walks slowly, on tiptoe, puts his face to the grating: "Well!--are you getting on all right ?" Sigismond gives a grunt, and the young master takes his leave, afraid to ask any further questions.

He knows from the cashier's expression that the showing will be a bad one.
In truth, since the days of the Revolution, when there was fighting in the very courtyard of the factory, so pitiable an inventory never had been seen in the Fromont establishment.

Receipts and expenditures balanced each other.

The general expense account had eaten up everything, and, furthermore, Fromont Jeune was indebted to the firm in a large sum.

You should have seen old Planus's air of consternation when, on the 31st of December, he went up to Georges's office to make report of his labors.
Georges took a very cheerful view of the matter.