Vautrin
I did more!
The Duchess
He must have suffered much.
Vautrin Never! I concealed from him the means I took to make his life happy and easy. I would not let him even suspect them—it would have blighted him. You may ennoble him by parchments, I have made him noble in heart.
The Duchess
And he was my son!
Vautrin Yes, a son full of nobility, of winning grace, of high instincts; he needed but to have the way made clear to him.
The Duchess (wringing the hand of Vautrin) You must needs be great indeed, who have so well performed a mother's task!
Vautrin And better than you mothers do! Often you love your babes amiss—Ah, you will spoil him for me even now!—He was of reckless courage; he wished to be a soldier, and the Emperor would have accepted him. I showed him the world and mankind under their true light—Yet now he is about to renounce me—
The Duchess
My son ungrateful?
Vautrin
NO, 'tis mine I speak of.
The Duchess
Oh! give him back to me this very instant!