MADELEINE [_teasing her good humouredly_] Ah! So Catherine’s off to Paris—quite the lady! LUCIE. Shall you stay there long? CATHERINE. Oh, no. I expect to be back to-morrow. My big boy there isn’t very well. So I’m going to see him, too. MADELEINE [_in order to say something_] This early heat, no doubt. CATHERINE. May be. Then you haven’t any errands for me? LUCIE and MADELEINE. No, no. No, thank you. CATHERINE. You don’t know what I’m going for? LUCIE. I have no idea. CATHERINE. I’m going to see my eldest girl. MADELEINE. You know where she’s living, then? CATHERINE. Yes, I’ve seen someone who met her. LUCIE. And why didn’t she write to you? CATHERINE. We’d got angry with one another. MADELEINE. Ah! CATHERINE. After she was turned off from the sewing-place she couldn’t get any work. And what must she do but want money from me? As if we had so much to spare! LUCIE. What’s she doing now? CATHERINE. She’s in work again. It seems she’s got a good place. LUCIE. Come and tell us about her, won’t you? CATHERINE. Yes, indeed I will. MADELEINE. And when you’re my way come in to see me, too. I’ll have a little packet of things for your youngsters. CATHERINE. Ah, there it is! My husband won’t let me take anything more from you or Mme. Brignac. LUCIE. Why? CATHERINE. Because of his politics. He says he’s not going to vote for M. Brignac, so he doesn’t want to owe him anything. MADELEINE. But why not from me? I don’t ask him to vote for me! CATHERINE. That’s all one. You see, when you’re in want, it turns a body sulky. LUCIE. In want? He’s still at the electric works, isn’t he? He makes a good living. CATHERINE. So he does. If there were just the two of us, we’d live like lords. But it’s the little ones, that’s what it is: there are too many of us. MADELEINE. Oh, come, come, Catherine! CATHERINE. Well, ma’am, I ask you. We don’t go spending our money at the theatre— _Brignac enters. He is a dark, good looking fellow of five-and-thirty, rather stout, with a strong, vibrating voice, and a southern accent._ BRIGNAC [_to Josephine_] And bring me the biscuits and the bottle I told you to bring up this morning. The one with the green seal. JOSEPHINE. Yes, sir. BRIGNAC. Aha, Lucie! A kiss, quick! Congratulate me! LUCIE. It went well? BRIGNAC. Splendidly. How are you, Madeleine? Immensely! Ah, Catherine, it’s you. How are you? CATHERINE. I was just going, sir. BRIGNAC. I didn’t see your husband at the meeting. CATHERINE. He wasn’t there, sir. BRIGNAC. Ah, yes, yes. A regular fire-eater now, isn’t he? Well, I hope his Socialism is profitable. CATHERINE. Well, we might—