‘By the way, did you hear those abominable screams yesterday evening?’

‘It was the Blins butchering their pig. I’m still waiting for my trotter . . . Methinks I’ll be waiting for some time to come!’

The sound of cannon fire made them prick up their ears.

‘Fear not! They’ll never target the Grands Boulevards. If they did, wherever would they go for entertainment when they invade!’

Whereupon Clothilde scanned the room. ‘Auguste, that pedestal table over there, it reminds me too much of the dreadful bore who gave it to me. Do burn it, will you, so we might start the year a little better than we finished the previous one.’

*

Ferdinand, for his part, was not quite living by the same calendar as the other members of his family.

There had been a before and after the arrival of the Prussians and there would be a before and after their departure. Thus, in Prussian time, he did not have a minute to lose and he was busy dashing from one construction site to another.

He had adopted the following syllogism: Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Versailles were two Prussian towns under Prussian administration being run by a Prussian administrator, which meant the public authorities were Prussian. The de Rigny businesses had always been engaged by the public authorities. Therefore, the company would work for the Prussians. And being the businessman he was, he saw only advantages to this reasoning, for the good thing about the occupying forces was evidently his ability to overcharge for everything, and to do so with complete impunity, since it was those who were being occupied who would foot the bill.

This collaboration with the Prussian authorities consisted of repairing the bridges and railways to allow their troops to continue on to Paris, as well as the forts to allow them to fire at will on the Parisians, but that was really not the point, because in fact business was so good that in barely four months he had already overseen what he hoped was just the first of a long list of capital increases in the life of his marvellous public company.

War and public works: what a splendid union!

With Thiers at Versailles to negotiate the armistice, Ferdinand had headed there to be in the box seat to witness the sketching out of his future. That which war destroys is always rebuilt, that was the rule. With a bit of luck, there would be vengeance, and another war, and then another: it was endless! At dinner on New Year’s Eve he had overheard the following snatches of conversation from the government official sitting directly opposite him as he replied to his neighbour, who was troubled by the likely loss of Alsace and Lorraine: At some point we will take back the provinces. It’s the money we’ll never recover.