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Duchess (re-entering the room)

      Fernand, dear aunt, calls himself Raoul de Frescas. (Exit.)

SCENE SECOND

      Mademoiselle de Vaudrey (alone) She does not see that the recovery of her son would be a miracle. All mothers believe in miracles. We must keep watch over her. A look, a word might ruin her, for if she is right, if God restores her son to her, she is on the brink of a catastrophe more frightful even than the deception she had been practicing. Does she think she can dissemble under the eyes of women?

SCENE THIRD. Mademoiselle de Vaudrey and Felicite

      Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

      Already here?

      Felicite

      Her grace the duchess dismissed me early.

      Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

      Has my niece given you no orders for the morning?

      Felicite

      None, madame.

      Mademoiselle 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 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 doesn't love her son.

      Vautrin I am obliged to draw this word from your throat, as if it were the cork in a bottle of Bordeaux. There is, I perceive, some mystery in this house. Here is a mother, a Duchesse de Montsorel, who does not love her son, her only son! Who is her confessor?

      Joseph

      She keeps her religious observances a profound secret.

      Vautrin Good – I shall soon know everything. Secrets are like young girls, the more you conceal them, the sooner they are discovered. I will send two of my rascals to the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas. They won't work out their salvation in that way, but they'll work out something else. – Good-bye.

SCENE SIXTH

      Joseph (alone) He is an old friend – and that is the worst nuisance in the world. He will make me lose my place. Ah, if I were not afraid of being poisoned like a dog by Jacques Collin, who is quite capable

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