GERMINAL
tent to live wholesomely on what we have, giving a part to the poor! Come now! your men must be mere brigands if they came and stole a pin from us!"
Négrel himself had to calm him, though amused at his anger. The crabs were still going round; the little crackling sound of their carapaces could be heard, while the conversation turned to politics. M. Grégoire, in spite of everything and though still trembling, called himself a Liberal and regretted Louis Philippe. As for Deneulin, he was for a strong Government; he declared that the Emperor was gliding down the slope of dangerous concessions.
"Remember '89," he said. "It was the nobility who made the Revolution possible, by their complicity and its taste for philosophic novelties. Very well! the middle class to-day are playing the same silly game with their furious Liberalism, their rage for destruction, their flattery of the people. Yes, yes, you are sharpening the teeth of the monster that will devour us. It will devour us, rest assured!"
The ladies bid him be silent, and tried to change the conversation by asking him news of his daughters. Lucie was at Marchiennes, where she was singing with a friend; Jeanne was painting an old beggar's head. But he said these things in a distracted way; he constantly looked at the manager, who was absorbed in the reading of his despatches and forgetful of his guests. Behind those thin leaves he felt Paris and the directors' orders, which would decide the strike. At last he could not help yielding to his pre-occupation.
"Well, what are you going to do?" he asked suddenly.
M. Hennebeau started; then turned off the question with a vague phrase.
"We shall see."
"No doubt you are solidly placed, you can wait," Deneulin began to think aloud. "But as for me, I shall be done for if the strike reaches Vandame. I shall have re-installed Jean-Bart in vain; with a single pit, I can only get along by constant production. Ah! I am not in a very pleasant situation, I can assure you!"
This involuntary confession seemed to strike M. Hennebeau. He listened and a plan formed within him: in case the strike turned out badly, why not utilise it by letting things run down
[187]
