. du Brocard (to Dupre, who scrutinizes De Verby)
M. Dupre, I have thought that it would be a good thing--

Dupre (interrupting her)
Later, madame, later.

(He leads her to Jules, who goes out with his mother, followed by the
agents.)

SCENE SIXTH

Dupre and De Verby.

De Verby (aside)
These people have hit upon a lawyer who is rich, without ambition--and
eccentric.

Dupre (crossing the stage and gazing at De Verby, aside)
Now is my time to learn your secret. (Aloud) You are very much
interested in my client, monsieur?

De Verby
Very much indeed.

Dupre
I have yet to understand what motive could have led him, young, rich
and devoted to pleasure as he is, to implicate himself in a
conspiracy--

De Verby
The passion for glory.

Dupre
Don't talk in that way to a lawyer who for twenty years has practiced
in the courts; who has studied men and affairs well enough to know
that the finest motives are only assumed as a disguise for trumpery
passions, and has never yet met a man whose heart was free from the
calculations of self-interest.

De Verby
Do you ever take up a case without charging anything?

Dupre
I often do so; but I never act contrary to my convictions.

De Verby
I understand that you are rich?

Dupre
I have some fortune. Without it, in the world as at present
constituted, I should be on the straight road for the poor-house.

De Verby
It is then from conviction, I suppose, that you have undertaken the
defence of young Rousseau?

Dupre
Certainly. I believe him to be the dupe of others in a higher station,
and I like those who allow themselves to be duped from generous
motives and not from self-interest; for in these times the dupe is
often as greedy after gain as the man who exploits him.

De Verby
You belong, I perceive, to the sect of misanthropes.

Dupre
I do not care enough for mankind to hate them, for I have never yet
met any one I could love. I am contented with studying my fellow-men;
for I see that they are all engaged in playing each, with more or less
success, his own little comedy. I have no illusion about anything, it
is true, but I smile at it all like a spectator who sits in a theatre
to be amused. One thing I never do; I hiss at nothing; for I have not
sufficient feeling about things for that.

De Verby (aside)
How is it