"Yes, it is really prodigious," interrupted Monsieur Hupel de la Noue. "Just fancy that I, who am an old Parisian, can no longer find my way about Paris. I lost myself yesterday when going from the Hôtel de Ville to the Luxembourg. It is prodigious, prodigious!" A short pause ensued. All the serious people were listening now. "The transformation of Paris," continued Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, "will be the glory of the reign. The lower classes are ungrateful: they ought to kiss the emperor's feet. I was saying only this morning at the council, where the great success of the loan was being discussed: 'Gentlemen, let those brawlers of the opposition say what they like, to upset Paris is to fertilize it.'" Saccard smiled and closed his eyes, as though the better to relish the smartness of the dictum. He leant behind Madame d'Espanet's back, and said to Monsieur Hupel de la Noue, loud enough to be heard: "He is most adorably witty." Now that the conversation had turned on the alterations being made in Paris, Monsieur Charrier was stretching his neck as though to take part in it. His partner Mignon was fully occupied with Madame Sidonie, who was giving him plenty to do. Ever since the beginning of the dinner, Saccard had been watching the two contractors from out of the corner of his eye. "The administration," said he, "has met with so much devotion! Every one has wished to contribute to the great work. Without the rich companies which came to its assistance, the city would never have done so well nor so quickly." He turned round, and added with a sort of brutal flattery: "Messieurs Mignon and Charrier know something of this, they who have had their share of labour, and who will have their share of glory." The two masons who had made their fortune received this compliment beatifically full in the chest. Mignon, to whom Madame Sidonie was saying in a lackadaisical manner, "Ah! sir, you flatter me; no, I am too old to wear pink--" interrupted her in the middle of her sentence, to reply to Saccard: "You are too kind; we merely did our business." But Charrier was more polished. He finished his glass of Pomard and found means to make an observation. "The works about Paris," said he, "have enabled the workman to live." "Say also," resumed Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, "that they have given a magnificent spurt to all financial and industrial undertakings." "And don't forget the artistic side of the question; the new thoroughfares are majestic," added Monsieur Hupel de la Noue, who flattered himself on his good taste. "Yes, yes, it is a fine piece of work," murmured Monsieur de Mareuil, for the sake of saying something. "As for the cost," gravely declared the deputy Haffner, who only opened his mouth on grand occasions, "our children will pay it, and that is only justice."