Don't you think I have done right to come and tell you ?" "Thank you," said des Lupeaulx, nodding to the lawyer with a shrewd look.
"One stroke of your pen will buy them off," said Desroches, leaving him.
"What an immense sacrifice!" muttered des Lupeaulx.

"It would be impossible to explain it to a woman," thought he.

"Is Celestine worth more than the clearing off of my debts ?--that is the question.

I'll go and see her this morning." So the beautiful Madame Rabourdin was to be, within an hour, the arbiter of her husband's fate, and no power on earth could warn her of the importance of her replies, or give her the least hint to guard her conduct and compose her voice.

Moreover, in addition to her mischances, she believed herself certain of success, never dreaming that Rabourdin was undermined in all directions by the secret sapping of the mollusks.
"Well, Monseigneur," said des Lupeaulx, entering the little salon where they breakfasted, "have you seen the articles on Baudoyer ?" "For God's sake, my dear friend," replied the minister, "don't talk of those appointments just now; let me have an hour's peace! They cracked my ears last night with that monstrance.