Other People’s Money features some playful chemistry between the unlikeliest-of-unlikely couples: the short, squat DeVito and the tall, chic Miller.He was, at the age of twenty-five, which he had just reached, a man so utterly lacking in individuality, that he could scarcely have excited any feeling either of sympathy or affection.And in fact he was about to give up his perquisitions, when a bundle thinner than the rest attracted his attention.He cut the thread that bound it; and almost at once:“The mischief!” said the servant, laughing.“If that is all, she won’t ruin her husband, will she?”No one replied.The commissary of police started.I had dreamed of something better for you; but times are hard, trade is dull:in short, having only a dowry of twenty thousand francs to give you, I have no right to be very particular.He wished to be rich.She was not pleased with him; but she could hardly have said that she was displeased.He was “sold”; and yet he manifested neither spite nor anger.He seemed in no wise anxious to run after the fugitive.Upon the features of Maxence and of Mlle. Gilberte, and more still in Mme. Favoral’s eyes, he had read that it would be useless for the present.“Naturally.Well, you can safely tell her that she never will have had a better mistress.“O my children!” she sobbed, covering them with her kisses and her tears,—“my children, we are most unfortunate.”He made up his mind bravely; and when four years later, his daughter Gilberte was born, instead of lamenting:“Do not swear, madame.”He falls flat on his face onto the bedspread, stunned with grief and loss, and his butler tries to cheer him.The situation is complicated because Miss Sullivan (Penelope Ann Miller) is the daughter of Jorgy’s assistant and companion (played by Piper Laurie).M. Favoral stopped short, struck his forehead, and with the accent of a man who reveals something incredible, prodigious, unheard of,There are only three things in this world with that kind of unconditional acceptance: dogs, doughnuts and money.
Having money, he found many friends.Having once tasted the cup of facile pleasures, he yielded readily to its intoxication.In his presence the dirty linen of two millions of people is washed en famille.He accused her of allowing herself to be grossly cheated, or even to be in collusion with the dealers.I love money more than I love the things it can buy. Does that surprise you? Money, it don't care whether I'm good or not.We see that it is empty of everything except a great deal of money.“Ah!I catch you this time, father!” exclaimed the girl.The silk-merchant’s business had become unprofitable; he was on the verge of bankruptcy.But, instead of returning their greeting:But in vain did the commissary search all the drawers.
He found only those useless papers which are made relics of by people who have made order their religious faith,—uninteresting letters, grocers’ and butchers’ bills running back twenty years.“Where is Maxence?” he inquired.“M.Favoral is no longer here,” replied M. Chapelain, the old lawyer.Her father, soon tired of his lonely fireside, commenced to seek away from home some diversion from his sorrow.Only money is better. You know why? Because it don't make you fat and it don't poop all over the living room floor.The Sunday excursions were suppressed.“Sold to M. Favoral an India Cashmere, fr. 8,500.The velvet on the chairs was darned at the angles as with the needle of a fairy.And, sure enough, the next day that excellent father introduced M. Vincent Favoral to his daughter.Of the twenty thousand francs of his wife’s dowry, twelve thousand only had been paid, and it was in vain that he clamored for the balance.The unfortunate woman was not convinced.One penny!