"Céléborne!" cried Bilbette. "Call Armalvéguil at once! The Count is arriven, and the mushrooms that were withered shall be renewed!"
"Ah! Mon cher monsieur Morrie," said Monte Fato. "I perceive with sorrow that I have brought about a revolution in your family."
"Tenez, tenez," said Meurtier laughing, "it is that you are known in rue Jadis-Joppelin, and that your coming was foretold by Malbet the wit:
The Bank trembles. To the salons of the fashionable
éclat approaches. The chic awaken,
for the hour is come for the grands bourgeois:
at the Ballroom of Érecq they shall stand again,
and hear the gossip in the halls ringing.
About whom will they gossip? Who will call them
from the grey redingote to a nouvelle vague?
The Count of Monte Fato, countless his coffers.
From the South he will come; caprice will drive him:
he will pass the Door to the Banc d'Arnor."
The Count laughed. "That is truly diverting!" he said. "But your family seems happy."
