“This is no longer the time, gentlemen, when civil discord ensanguined our public places, when the landlord, the businessman, the workingman himself, falling asleep at night, lying down to peaceful sleep, trembled lest he should be awakened suddenly by the noise of incendiary tocsins, when the most subversive doctrines audaciously sapped foundations.”

“Well, someone down there might see me,” Rodolphe resumed, “then I should have to invent excuses for a fortnight; and with my bad reputation⁠—”

“Oh, you are slandering yourself,” said Emma.

“No! It is dreadful, I assure you.”