Vautrin | Page 3

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 the servants' hall?
Joseph The duchess is considered a saint.
Vautrin Poor woman! And the duke?
Joseph He is an egotist.
Vautrin Yes, a statesman. (Aside) The duke must have secrets, and we must look into that. Every great aristocrat has some paltry passion by which he can be led; and if I once get control of him, his son, necessarily-- (To Joseph) What is said about the marriage of the Marquis de Montsorel and Inez de Christoval?
Joseph I haven't heard a word. The duchess seems to take very little interest in it.
Vautrin And she has only one son! That seems hardly natural.
Joseph Between ourselves, I believe she