Vautrin | Page 3

de Vaudrey A young man, named Monsieur Raoul de
Frescas, is coming to call upon me towards noon; he may possibly ask
for the duchess, but you must instruct Joseph to bring him to my
apartment. (Exit.)
SCENE FOURTH.
Felicite (alone) A young man for her? Not a bit of it. I always said that
there was some motive in my lady's retired way of living; she is rich,
she is handsome, yet the duke does not love her; and now the first time
she goes out, a young man comes next day to see her, and her aunt
wishes to receive him. They keep me in the dark; I am neither trusted
nor tipped. If this is the way chambermaids are to be treated under the
new government, I don't know what will become of us. (A side door
opens, two men are seen, and the door is immediately closed again.) At
any rate we shall have a look at the young man. (Exit.)
SCENE FIFTH. Joseph and Vautrin. (Vautrin wears a tan-colored
overcoat, trimmed with fur, over the black evening dress of a foreign
diplomatic minister.)
Joseph That blasted girl! We would have been down in our luck if she
had seen us.
Vautrin You mean /you/ would have been down in your luck; you take
pretty good care not to be caught again, don't you? I suppose then that
you enjoy peace of mind in this house?

Joseph That I do, for honesty I find to be the best policy.
Vautrin And do you quite approve of honesty?
Joseph Oh, yes, so long as the place and the wages suit me.
Vautrin I see you are doing well, my boy. You take little and often, you
save, you even have the honesty to lend a trifle at interest. That's all
right, but you cannot imagine what pleasure it gives me to see one of
my old acquaintances filling an honorable position. You have
succeeded in doing so; your faults are but negative and therefore half
virtues. I myself once had vices; I regret them as things of the past; I
have nothing but dangers and struggles to interest me. Mine is the life
of an Indian hemmed in by my enemies, and I am fighting in defence of
my own scalp.
Joseph And what of mine?
Vautrin Yours? Ah! you are right to ask that. Well, whatever happens
to me, you have the word of Jacques Collin that he will never
compromise you. But you must obey me in everything!
Joseph In everything? But--
Vautrin There are no buts with me. If there is any dark business to be
done I have my "trusties" and old allies. Have you been long in this
place?
Joseph The duchess took me for her footman when she went with the
court to Ghent, last year and I am trusted by both the ladies of the
house.
Vautrin That's the ticket! I need a few points with regard to these
Montsorels. What do you know about them?
Joseph Nothing.
Vautrin (aside) He is getting a little too honest. Does he think he knows
nothing about them? Well, you cannot talk for five minutes with a man
without drawing something out of him. (Aloud) Whose room is this?
Joseph The salon of her grace the duchess, and these are her apartments;
those of the duke are on the floor above. The suite of the marquis, their
only son, is below, and looks on the court.
Vautrin I asked you for impressions of all the keys of the duke's study.
Where are they?
Joseph (hesitatingly) Here they are.
Vautrin Every time I purpose coming here you will find a cross in
chalk on the garden gate; every night you must examine the place.

Virtue reigns here, and the hinges of that gate are very rusty; but a
Louis XVIII can never be a Louis XV! Good-bye--I'll come back
to-morrow night. (Aside) I must rejoin my people at the Christoval
house.
Joseph (aside) Since this devil of a fellow has found me out, I have
been on tenter- hooks--
Vautrin (coming back from the door) The duke then does not live with
his wife?
Joseph They quarreled twenty years ago.
Vautrin What about?
Joseph Not even their own son can say.
Vautrin And why was your predecessor dismissed?
Joseph I cannot say. I was not acquainted with him. They did not set up
an establishment here until after the king's second return.
Vautrin (aside) Such are the advantages of the new social order;
masters and servants are bound together by no ties; they feel no mutual
attachment, exchange no secrets, and so give no ground for betrayal.
(To Joseph) Any spicy stories at meal-times?
Joseph Never before the servants.
Vautrin What is thought of them in