Harpagon. Yes, You have.

Elise. I beg your pardon.

Harpagon. I see well enough that you overheard some words. I was talking to myself about the difficulty one experiences now-a-days in finding money, and I was saying how pleasant it must be to have ten thousand crowns in the house.

Cléante. We hesitated to speak to you, for fear of interrupting you.

Harpagon. I am very glad to tell you this, so that you may not take things the wrong way, and imagine that I said that I myself had ten thousand crowns.

Cléante. We have no wish to enter into your concerns.

Harpagon. Would to Heaven that I had them, ten thousand crowns!

Cléante. I do not think …

Harpagon. It would be a capital affair for me.

Elise. These are things …

Harpagon. I am greatly in need of them.

Cléante. I think …

Harpagon. That would suit me very well.

Elise. You are …

Harpagon. And I should not have to complain as I do now, about the hard times.

Cléante. Good Heavens! father, you have no need to complain, and we know that you have wealth enough.

Harpagon How! I wealth enough! Those who say so surely tell a lie. Nothing could be more false; and they are but a pack of rascals who spread all these reports about.

Elise. Do not put yourself in a rage.

Harpagon. A strange thing, that my own children should betray me, and become my enemies.

Cléante. Is it becoming your enemy to say that you have wealth?

Harpagon. Yes. Such talk, and the expenses you indulge in will be the cause that one of these fine days people will come and cut my throat, in my own house, in the belief that I am stuffed with gold pieces.

Cléante. What great expenses do I indulge in?

Harpagon. Expenses? Can anything be more scandalous than this sumptuous attire, which you exhibit about the town? I scolded your sister yesterday; but this is much worse. This cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance; for, take you from top to toe, there is enough to ensure a handsome competency. I have told you twenty times, son, that all you manners displease me; you are furiously aping the aristocracy; and to go dressed as you do, you must rob me.

Cléante. Eh! how rob you?