“I’ll follow your instructions faithfully,” Rougon replied.  “Only don’t forget what I asked you as the price of my cooperation.”

“If we succeed your demands shall be satisfied, I give you my word.  Moreover, I will write to you and guide you according to the direction which events may take.  Mind, no panic or excitement.  You must obey me implicitly.”

“What have you been plotting there?” Felicite asked inquisitively.

“My dear mother,” Eugene replied with a smile, “you have had too little faith in me thitherto to induce me to confide in you my hopes, particularly as at present they are only based on probabilities.  To be able to understand me you would require faith.  However, father will inform you when the right time comes.”

Then, as Felicite assumed the demeanour of a woman who feels somewhat piqued, he added in her ear, as he kissed her once more:  “I take after you, although you disowned me.  Too much intelligence would be dangerous at the present moment.  When the crisis comes, it is you who will have to manage the business.”

He then quitted the room, but, suddenly re-opening the door, exclaimed in an imperious tone:  “Above all things, do not trust Aristide; he is a mar-all, who would spoil everything.  I have studied him sufficiently to feel certain that he will always fall on his feet.  Don’t have any pity; if we make a fortune, he’ll know well enough how to rob us of his share.”

When Eugene had gone, Felicite endeavoured to ferret out the secret that was being hidden from her.  She knew her husband too well to interrogate him openly.  He would have angrily replied that it was no business of hers.  In spite, however, of the clever tactics she pursued, she learnt absolutely nothing.  Eugene had chosen a good confidant for those troubled times, when the greatest discretion was necessary.  Pierre, flattered by his son’s confidence, exaggerated that passive ponderosity which made him so impenetrable.  When Felicite saw she would not learn anything from him, she ceased to flutter round him.  On one point only did she remain inquisitive, but in this respect her curiosity was intense.  The two men had mentioned a price stipulated by Pierre himself.  What could that price be?  This after all was the sole point of interest for Felicite, who did not care a rap for political matters.  She knew that her husband must have sold himself dearly, but she was burning to know the nature of the bargain.  One evening, when they had gone to bed, finding Pierre in a good humour, she brought the conversation round to the discomforts of their poverty.

“It’s quite time to put an end to this,” she said.  “We have been ruining ourselves in oil and fuel since those gentlemen have been coming here.  And who will pay the reckoning?  Nobody perhaps.”

Her husband fell into the trap, and smiled with complacent superiority.  “Patience,” said he.  And with an air of shrewdness he looked into his wife’s eyes and added:  “Would you be glad to be the wife of a receiver of taxes?”