HOST. You'll pay first. LEBRET. If this is a den of thieves I won't pay a single sou. HOST. Explain to your friend where he is. GRASSET. This is a strange place. People who play criminals come here--and others who are criminals without suspecting it. LEBRET. Indeed? GRASSET. I would have you mark that what I just said was very witty; it is positively capable of making the substance of a whole speech. LEBRET. I don't understand a word of all you say. GRASSET. I was simply telling you that Prosper was my manager. And he is still playing comedy with his actors, but a different kind from before. My former gentlemen and lady colleagues sit around and behave as though they were criminals. Do you understand! They tell blood-curdling stories of things that have never happened to them--speak of crimes they have never committed ... and the audience that comes here enjoys the pleasant titillation of hobnobbing with the most dangerous rabble in Paris--swindlers, burglars, murderers--and-- LEBRET. What kind of an audience? HOST. The most elegant people in Paris. GRASSET. Noble-- HOST. Gentlemen of the Court. LEBRET. Down with them! GRASSET. It does 'em good. It gives a fillip to their jaded senses. 'Twas here that I made my start, Labret--here that I delivered my first speech as though for a joke; here it was that I first began to hate the dogs who sat amongst us with all their fine clothes and perfumes and rottenness ... and I am very glad indeed, my good Labret, that you, too, should see just for once the place from which your great friend raised himself. (In another tone.) I say, Prosper, supposing the business doesn't come off-- HOST. What business? GRASSET. Why, my political career--will you engage me again? HOST. Not for anything! GRASSET (lightly). Why--I thought there might be still room for somebody besides your Henri. HOST. Apart from that ... I should be afraid that you might forget yourself one fine day and fall foul in earnest of one of my paying customers. GRASSET (flattered). That would certainly be possible-- HOST. I--I have control over myself-- GRASSET. Frankly, Prosper, I must say that I would admire you for your self-control, if I happened not to know that you are a poltroon. HOST. Ah! my friend, I am satisfied with what I can do in my own line. I get enough pleasure out of being able to tell the fellows my opinion of them to their faces and to insult them to my heart's content--while they take it for a joke. That, too, is a way of venting one's wrath. (Draws a dagger and makes it flash.) LEBRET. Citizen Prosper, what is the meaning of this? GRASSET. Have no fear. I wager that the dagger is not even sharpened. HOST. In that, my friend, you may be making a mistake. One fine day the jest may turn to earnest--and so I am ready for all emergencies.