DUPONT. Thanks. [_He gives Caroline’s hat to Madame Dupont_] Take this thing away. And these stockings. Hide them somewhere. You don’t want to appear to do your own darning, confound it! It’s extraordinary you shouldn’t have thought of that. [_Madame Dupont goes out, returning in a moment. Dupont continues mechanically to Julie_] It is for you to weigh the pros and cons. This is better. Vicomte de Liverolles; M. L’Abbé Candar, Honorary Canon; Ange Nitron, Ex-Municipal Councillor. That will look well enough. The Wagner score on the piano, open, of course. That’s right. There’s something else I want, though. Julie, the box of cigars which M. Gueroult sent me when he was elected to the Chamber. JULIE [_bringing a box_] Here it is. DUPONT. Give it me. JULIE. You haven’t begun it yet. DUPONT. Wait. [_He rummages in his pocket and takes out a knife, which he opens_] We must show them that other people besides deputies smoke cigars at five sous. [_He opens the box_] Without being proud, one has one’s dignity to keep up. There! [_He takes a handful of cigars and gives them to his daughter_] Put those in the drawer so that the box mayn’t seem to have been opened on purpose for them. [_He arranges the box on the table_]. A fashion paper? Excellent! And for myself [to _Mme. Dupont_] Léontine, give me a fresh ribbon of my Order of Christ. This one is faded. [_To his daughter_] He is twenty-eight. He is good looking and distinguished. He passed his law examination at Bordeaux. [_He puts a fresh ribbon in his coat and looks at himself for a considerable time in the glass_]. In a town where I was not known this would be as good as the Legion of Honour. [_He turns round_]. Well? Have you made up your mind? JULIE. I should like more time to think it over. DUPONT. You have still a quarter of an hour. MME. DUPONT. She would like a few days, perhaps. DUPONT. That’s it. Shilly shally! We are to have the story of that great stupid Caroline over again, are we? No! Your sister, whom you see now an old maid, who will never be married, unless her aunt in Calcutta leaves her some money—your sister, too, had her chance one day. She hum’d and ha’d; she wanted to think it over. And you see the result. That’s what thinking it over leads to. Here she is, still on my hands! MME. DUPONT. You mustn’t say that. She earns her own living. DUPONT. She earns her own living, perhaps; but she remains on my hands all the same. By the way, we had better not say anything to the Mairauts about Caroline’s working for money. MME. DUPONT. They are sure to know. DUPONT. Not they. What was I saying? Oh, yes. She remains on my hands all the same. And one old maid is quite enough in the family. Two would be intolerable. Remember, my child, you have no dot—at least, none worth mentioning. And as things go nowadays, when one has no dot, one mustn’t be too particular. JULIE. To marry nowadays, then, a girl has to buy her husband? DUPONT [_shrugs_] Well—