ls 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?

GRA