point of
bankruptcy, and you are unfortunate enough to be my creditor, while I
am fortunate enough to be your debtor by the amount of forty-seven
thousand, two hundred and thirty-three francs and some centimes.

Mercadet
Your head is level enough.

De la Brive
But my pocket and my conscience are a little out. Yet who can reproach
me? By squandering my fortune I have brought profit to every trade in
Paris, and even to those who do not know me. We, the useless ones! We,
the idlers! Upon my soul! It is we who keep up the circulation of
money--

Mercadet
By means of the money in circulation. Ah! you have all your wits about
you!

De la Brive
But I have nothing else.

Mercadet
Our wits are our mint. Is it not so? But, considering your present
situation, I shall be brief.

De la Brive
That is why I take a seat.

Mercadet
Listen to me. I see that you are going down the steep way which leads
to that daring cleverness for which fools blame successful operators.
You have tasted the piquant intoxicating fruits of Parisian pleasure.
You have made luxury the inseparable companion of your life. Paris
begins at the Place de l'Etoile, and ends at the Jockey Club. That is
your Paris, which is the world of women who are talked about too much,
or not at all.

De la Brive
That is true.

Mercadet
You breathe the cynical atmosphere of wits and journalists, the
atmosphere of the theatre and of the ministry. It is a vast sea in
which thousands are casting their nets! You must either continue this
existence, or blow your brains out!

De la Brive
No! For it is impossible to think that it can continue without me.

Mercadet
Do you feel that you have the genius to maintain yourself in style at
the height to which you aspire? To dominate men of mind by the power
of capital and superiority of intellect? Do you think that you will
always have skill enough to keep afloat between the two capes, which
have seen the life of elegance so often founder between the cheap
restaurant and the debtors' prison?

De la Brive
Why! You are breaking into my conscience like a burglar--you echo my
very thought! What do you want with me?

Mercadet
I wish to rescue you, by launching you into the world of business.

De la Brive
By what entrance?

Mercadet
Let me choose the door.

De la Brive
The devil!

Mercadet
Show yourself a man who will compromise himself for me--

De la Brive
But men of straw may be burnt.

Mercadet
You mus