"Stolen money, my fortune! Did not my great-grandfather gain, and hardly, too, the sum originally invested? Have we not run all the risks of the enterprise, and do I today make a bad use of my income?"
Madame Hennebeau, alarmed at seeing the mother and daughter also white with fear, hastened to intervene, saying:
"Paul is joking, my dear sir."
But M. Grégoire was carried out of himself. As the servant was passing round the crayfish he took three of them without knowing what he was doing and began to break their claws with his teeth.
"Ah! I don't say but what there are shareholders who a***e their position. For instance, I have been told that ministers have received shares in Montsou for services rendered to the Company. It is like a nobleman whom I will not name, a duke, the biggest of
