Saint-Charles Come, baron, since we are speaking freely to each other to-day, I for my part must confess that your admirable Pole-- Vautrin You also had the pleasure? Saint-Charles On my honor, yes! Vautrin (laughing) Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Saint Charles (laughing) Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Vautrin We can safely laugh now, for I suppose you left her there? Saint-Charles Immediately, as you did. I see that we are both come to throw away our money in Paris, and we have done well; but it seems to me, baron, that you have accepted a very secondary position, though one which attracts notice. Vautrin Ah! thank you, chevalier. I hope, however, we may still be friends for many a day. Saint-Charles Forever, I hope. Vautrin You can be extremely useful to me, I can be of immense service to you, we understand each other! Let me know what your present business is, and I will tell you mine. Saint-Charles (aside) I should like to know whether he is being set on me, or I on him. Vautrin (aside) It is going to be a somewhat slow business. Saint-Charles I will tell you. Vautrin I am attention! Saint-Charles Baron, between ourselves, I admire you immensely. Vautrin What a compliment from a man like you! Saint-Charles Not at all! To create a De Frescas in the face of all Paris shows an inventive genius which transcends by a thousand points that of our countesses at the Congress. You are angling for the dowry with rare nerve. Vautrin I angling for a dowry? Saint-Charles But, my dear friend, you would be found out, unless I your friend had been the man chosen to watch you, for I am appointed your shadower by a very high authority. Permit me also to ask how can you dare to interfere with the family of Montsorel in their pursuit of an heiress? Vautrin To think that I innocently believed you came to propose we should work in company, and speculate, both of us, with the money of Monsieur de Frescas, of which I have entire control--and here you talk to me of something entirely different! Frescas, my good friend, is one of the legal titles of this young man, who has seven in all. Stringent reasons prevent him from revealing the name of his family, which I know, for the next twenty-four hours. Their property is vast, I have seen their estate, from which I am just returned. I do not mind being taken by you for a rogue, for there is no disgrace in the vast sums at stake; but to be taken for an imbecile, capable of dancing attendance on a sham nobleman, and so silly as to defy the Montsorels on behalf of a counterfeit--Really, my friend, it would seem that you have never been to Vienna! We are not in the same class!