piness! (Aside) It is impossible to dissemble. (Aloud) In the
name of our common love I implore you to believe in my loyalty.

Inez
Has not my confidence in you been boundless? And the general has quite
justified it, even during your silence before the Montsorels. I
forgive you all the little annoyances you were forced to cause me.

Raoul (aside)
Ah! Vautrin! I trust myself to you! (Aloud) Inez, you do not know how
great is the impression your words make upon me; they give me power to
bear the overwhelming rapture your presence causes--Come then, let us
be happy!

SCENE EIGHTH
The same persons and the Marquis de Montsorel.

The footman (announcing a visitor)
Monsieur le Marquis de Montsorel.

Raoul (aside)
Ah! That name recalls me to myself. (To Inez) Whatever happens, Inez,
do not judge my conduct until I have myself given an account of it,
and believe at the present moment that I am carried along by an
invincible fatality.

Inez
Raoul, I cannot understand you; but I shall trust you always.

The Marquis (aside)
Again this little gentleman here! (He salutes Inez.) I thought you
were with your mother, mademoiselle, and I never dreamed my visit
would be so inopportune. Be good enough to excuse me--

Inez
I beg that you will not go; there is no one but ourselves here, for
Monsieur Raoul has been accepted by my family.

The Marquis
Will Monsieur Raoul de Frescas, then, accept my congratulations?

Raoul
Your congratulations? I accept them (they shake hands) in the same
spirit as that in which they are offered.

Inez (to Raoul)
Manage that he go away, and do you remain. (To the Marquis) My mother
requires me for a few moments, and I will return with her.

SCENE NINTH.
The Marquis and Raoul; later, Vautrin.

The Marquis
Will you agree to a meeting without seconds--a fight to the death?

Raoul
Without seconds?

The Marquis
Do you realize that both of us cannot exist in the same world?

Raoul
Your family is a powerful one; your proposition exposes me, in case I
am victorious, to their vengeance. Allow me to say that I do not want
to exchange this house for a prison. (Vautrin appears.) I will fight
to the death--but not without seconds.

The Marquis
Will those on your side stop the duel?

Raoul
Our mutual hatred is sufficient guarantee against that.

Vautrin (aside)
Well, now--we always commit some blunder in the moment of success! To
the death! This child would gamble away his life as if