Saint-Charles (aside) Once I get safe and sound out of their clutches, I will come down heavy on this nest of thieves. Vautrin Monsieur le Chevalier, I am yours to command! SCENE NINTH. Vautrin and Lafouraille. Lafouraille M. Vautrin! Vautrin Well? Lafouraille Are you letting him go? Vautrin Unless he considers himself at liberty, what can we hope to learn from him? I have given my instructions; he will be taught not to put ropes in the way of hangmen. When Philosopher brings for me the documents which this fellow is to hand him, they will be given to me, wherever I happen to be. Lafouraille But afterwards, will you spare his life? Vautrin You are always a little premature, my dear. Have you forgotten how seriously the dead interfere with the peace of the living? Hush! I hear Raoul--leave us to ourselves. SCENE TENTH. Vautrin and Raoul de Frescas. Raoul (soliloquizing) After a glimpse of heaven, still to remain on earth--such is my fate! I am a lost man; Vautrin, an infernal yet a kindly genius, a man who knows everything, and seems able to do everything, a man as harsh to others as he is good to me, a man who is inexplicable except by a supposition of witchcraft, a maternal providence if I may so call him, is not after all the providence divine. (Vautrin enters wearing a plain black peruke, a blue coat, gray pantaloons, a black waistcoat, the costume of a stock-broker.) Oh! I know what love is; but I did not know what revenge was, until I felt I could not die before I had wreaked my vengeance on these two Montsorels. Vautrin (aside) He is in trouble. (Aloud) Raoul, my son, what ails you? Raoul Nothing ails me. Pray leave me. Vautrin Do you again repulse me? You abuse the right you have to ill-treat a friend--What are you thinking about? Raoul Nothing. Vautrin Nothing? Come, sir, do you think that he who has taught you that English coldness, under the veil of which men of worth would conceal their feelings, was not aware of the transparency which belongs to this cuirass of pride? Try concealment with others, but not with me. Dissimulation is more than a blunder, for in friendship a blunder is a crime. Raoul To game no more, to come home tipsy no more, to shun the menagerie of the opera, to become serious, to study, to desire a position in life, this you call dissimulation. Vautrin You are as yet but a poor diplomatist. You will be a great one, when you can deceive me. Raoul, you have made the mistake which I have taken most pains to save you from. My son, why did you not take women for what they are, creatures of inconsequence, made to enslave without being their slave, like a sentimental shepherd? But instead, my Lovelace has been conquered by a Clarissa. Ah, young people will strike against these idols a great many times, before they discover them to be hollow! Raoul Is this a sermon?