He would pay their state dividends to Granoux, Roudier, and all those people who now came to her house as they might come to a cafe, to swagger and learn the latest news.

She had noticed the free-and-easy manner in which these people entered her drawing-room, and it had made her take a dislike to them.

Even the marquis, with his ironical politeness, was beginning to displease her.

To triumph alone, therefore, to keep the cake for themselves, as she expressed it, was a revenge which she fondly cherished.

Later on, when all those ill-bred persons presented themselves, hats off, before Monsieur Rougon the receiver of taxes, she would crush them in her turn.