Buteux Yes, we are rusting out!

Vautrin Thanks to me, the police have forgotten you! You owe your good luck to me alone! I have erased the brand from your foreheads. I am the head, whose ideas you, the arms, carry out.

Philosopher We are satisfied.

Vautrin You must all obey me blindly.

Lafouraille Blindly.

Vautrin Without a murmur.

Fil-de-Soie Without a murmur.

Vautrin Or else let us break our compact, and be off with you! If I meet with ingrat.i.tude from you, to whom can I venture hereafter to do a service?

Philosopher To no one, my emperor.

Lafouraille I should rather say, our great teacher!

Buteux I love you more than I love Adele.

Fil-de-Soie We worship you.

Vautrin If necessary, I shall even have to beat you.

Philosopher We'll take it without a murmur.

Vautrin To spit in your face; to bowl over your lives like a row of skittles.

Buteux But I bowl over with a knife.

Vautrin Very well--Kill me this instant.

Buteux It is no use being vexed with this man. Do you wish me to restore the opera-gla.s.s? I intended it for Adele!

All (surrounding Vautrin) Would you abandon us, Vautrin?

Lafouraille Vautrin! Our friend.

Philosopher Mighty Vautrin!

Fil-de-Soie Our old companion, deal with us as you will.

Vautrin Yes, and I can deal with you as I will. When I think what trouble you make, in your trinket-stealing, I feel inclined to send you back to the place I took you from. You are either above or below the level of society, dregs or foam; but I desire to make you enter into society.

People used to hoot you as you went by. I wish them to bow to you; you were once the basest of mankind, I wish you to be more than honest men.

Philosopher Is there such a cla.s.s?

Buteux There are those who are nothing at all.

Vautrin There are those who decide upon the honesty of others. You will never be honest burgesses, you must belong either to the wretched or the rich; you must therefore master one-half of the world! Take a bath of gold, and you will come forth from it virtuous!

Fil-de-Soie To think, that, when I have need of nothing, I shall be a good prince!

Vautrin Of course. And you, Lafouraille, you can become Count of Saint Helena; and what would you like to be, Buteux?

Buteux I should like to be a philanthropist, for the philanthropist always becomes a millionaire.

Philosopher And I, a banker.

Fil-de-Soie He wishes to be a licensed professional.

Vautrin Show yourselves then, according as occasion demands it, blind and clear-sighted, adroit and clumsy, stupid and clever, like all those who make their fortune. Never judge me, and try to understand my meaning. You ask who Raoul de Frescas is? I will explain to you; he will soon have an income of twelve hundred thousand francs. He will be a prince. And I picked him up when he was begging on the high road, and ready to become a drummer-boy; in his twelfth year he had neither name nor family; he came from Sardinia, where he must have got into some trouble, for he was a fugitive from justice.

Buteux Oh, now that we know his antecedents and his social position--

Vautrin Be off to your lodge!

Buteux Little Nini, daughter of Giroflee is there--

Vautrin She may let a spy pa.s.s in.

Buteux She! She is a little cat to whom it is not necessary to point out the stool-pigeons.

Vautrin You may judge my power from what I am in process of doing for Raoul.

Ought he not to be preferred before all? Raoul de Frescas is a young man who has remained pure as an angel in the midst of our mire-pit; he is our conscience; moreover, he is my creation; I am at once his father, his mother, and I desire to be his guiding providence. I, who can never know happiness, still delight in making other people happy.

I breathe through his lips, I live in his life, his pa.s.sions are my own; and it is impossible for me to know n.o.ble and pure emotions excepting in the heart of this being unsoiled by crime. You have your fancies, here I show you mine. In exchange for the blight which society has brought upon me, I give it a man of honor, and enter upon a struggle with destiny; do you wish to be of my party? Obey me.

All In life, and death--

Vautrin (aside) So my savage beasts are once more brought to submission. (Aloud) Philosopher, try to put on the air, the face, the costume of an _employe_ of the lost goods bureau, and take back to the emba.s.sy the plate borrowed by Lafouraille. (To Fil-de-Soie) You, Fil-de-Soie, must prepare a sumptuous dinner, as Monsieur de Frescas is to entertain a few friends. You will afterwards dress yourself as a respectable man, and a.s.sume the air of a lawyer. You will go to number six, Rue Oblin, ring seven times at the fourth-story door, and ask for Pere Giroflee.

When they ask where you come from, you will answer from a seaport in Bohemia. They will let you in. I want certain letters and papers of the Duc de Christoval; here are the text and patterns. I want an absolute fac-simile, with the briefest possible delay. Lafouraille, you must go and insert a few lines in the newspapers, notifying the arrival of . . . (He whispers into his ear.) This forms part of my plan. Now leave me.

Lafouraille Well, are you satisfied?

Vautrin Yes.

Philosopher You want nothing more of us?

Vautrin Nothing.

Fil-de-Soie There will be no more rebellion; every one will be good.

Buteux Let your mind rest easy; we are going to be not only polite, but honest.

Vautrin That is right, boys; a little integrity, a great deal of address, and you will be respected.

(Exeunt all except Vautrin.)