When Ponsard's comedy, which was known to be a furious satire on
the _agioteurs_, was first played, Louis Napoleon took the whole
orchestra and pit stalls, and filled them with people instructed to
applaud every allusion to the _faiseurs_. And he himself stood in his
box, his body almost out of it, clapping most energetically every attack
on them.'
'At the same time,' I said, 'has he not forced the Orleans Company and
the Lyons Company to buy the Grand Central at much more than its worth?
And was not that done in order to enable certain _faiseurs_ to realise
their gains?'
'He has forced the Orleans Company,' said Rivet, 'to buy up, or rather to
amalgamate the Grand Central; but I will not say at more than its value.
The amount to be paid is to depend on the comparative earnings of the
different lines, for two years before and two years after the purchase.'
'But,' I said, 'is it not true, first, that the Orleans Company was
unwilling to make the purchase? and, secondly, that thereupon the Grand
Central shares rose much in the market?'
'Both these facts,' answered Rivet, 'are true.'
'Do you believe,' I said to Tocqueville, 'H.
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