the angels, a space where all is happiness and
confidence; that you may tell me all your thoughts, even those which
are evil. Speak, I shall understand everything, even an act of
cowardice.

Raoul
God and Satan must have conspired to cast this man of bronze.

Vautrin
It is quite possible.

Raoul
I will tell you all.

Vautrin
Very good, my son; let us sit down.

Raoul
You have been the cause to me of opprobrium and despair.

Vautrin
Where? When? Blood of a man! Who has wounded you? Who has proved false
to you? Tell me the place, name the people--the wrath of Vautrin shall
descend upon them!

Raoul
You can do nothing.

Vautrin
Child, there are two kinds of men who can do anything.

Raoul
And who are they?

Vautrin
Kings, who are, or who ought to be, above the law; and--this will give
you pain--criminals, who are below it.

Raoul
But since you are not king--

Vautrin
Well! I reign in the region below.

Raoul
What horrible mockery is this, Vautrin?

Vautrin
Did you not say that God and the devil hobnobbed to cast me?

Raoul
Heavens, sir, you make me shudder!

Vautrin
Return to your seat! Calm yourself, my son. You must not be astonished
at anything, if you wish to escape being an ordinary man.

Raoul
Am I in the hands of a demon, or of an angel? You have brought me up
without debauching the generous instincts I feel within me; you have
enlightened without dazzling me; you have given me the experience of
the old, without depriving me of the graces of youth; but it is not
with impunity that you have whetted the edge of my intellect, expanded
my view, roused my perspicacity. Tell me, what is the source of your
wealth, is it an honorable one? Why do you forbid me to confess to you
the sufferings of my childhood? Why have you given me the name of the
village where you found me? Why do you prevent me from searching out
my father and mother? Why do you bow me down under a load of
falsehoods? An orphan may rouse the interest of people; an imposter,
never. I live in a style which makes me a equal to the son of a duke
or a peer; you have educated me well, without expense to the state;
you have launched me into the empyrean of the world, and now they
fling into my face the declaration, that there are no longer such
people as De Frescas in existence. I have been asked who my family
are, and you have forbidden me to answer. I am at once a great
nobleman and a pariah. I must swallow insults which wou