"oh, so you admit it! and high time, too! and then, they walk backward!""backward! you have seen our managers walk backward? why, i thought that only crabs walked backward!""don't laugh, gabriel; don't laugh!"
"i'm not laughing," protested gabriel, looking as solemn as a judge.
"perhaps you can tell me this, gabriel, as you're an intimate friend of the management: when i went up to m.richard, outside the foyer, during the garden interval, with my hand out before me, why did m.moncharmin hurriedly whisper to me, `go away! go away!
whatever you do, don't touch m.le directeur!' am i supposed to have an infectious disease?""it's incredible!"
"and, a little later, when m.de la borderie went up to m.richard, didn't you see m.moncharmin fling himself between them and hear him exclaim, `m.l'ambassadeur i entreat you not to touch m.le directeur'?""it's terrible!...and what was richard doing meanwhile?""what was he doing? why, you saw him! he turned about, bowed in front of him, though there was nobody in front of him, and withdrew backward.""backward?"
"and moncharmin, behind richard, also turned about; that is, he described a semicircle behind richard and also walkedbackward!...and they went like that to the staircase leading to the managers' office: backward, backward, backward!
...well, if they are not mad, will you explain what it means?""perhaps they were practising a figure in the ballet," suggested gabriel, without much conviction in his voice.
the secretary was furious at this wretched joke, made at so dramatic a moment.he knit his brows and contracted his lips.
then he put his mouth to gabriel's ear:
"don't be so sly, gabriel.there are things going on for which you and mercier are partly responsible.""what do you mean?" asked gabriel.