Grasset. This is a strange place. People who play criminals come here—and others who are criminals without suspecting it.
Lebrêt. Indeed?
Grasset. I would have you mark that what I just said was very witty; it is positively capable of making the substance of a whole speech.
Lebrêt. I don't understand a word of all you say.
Grasset. I was simply telling you that Prosper was my manager. And he is still playing comedy with his actors, but a different kind from before. My former gentlemen and lady colleagues sit around and behave as though they were criminals. Do you understand! They tell blood-curdling stories of things that have never happened to them—speak of crimes they have never committed ... and the audience that comes here enjoys the pleasant titillation of hobnobbing with the most dangerous rabble in Paris—swindlers, burglars, murderers—and—
Lebrêt. What kind of an audience?
Host. The most elegant people in Paris.
Grasset. Noble—
Host. Gentlemen of the Court.
Lebrêt. Down with them!