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ACT I

SCENE 3

Fouqué’s humble lodgings.

Fouqué

Julien, so good to see you.

Julien

I told you, I don’t forget my friends.

Fouqué

This is delightful. In fact, I was going to look you up anyway.

Julien

I beat you to it.

Fouqué

I have a business proposition to put to you, Julien.

Julien

Really? I’m hardly in a position to undertake any business. You sound so serious.

Fouqué

I am serious. I apologize for sounding so pompous. My timber business is going very well, and I need some help, a partner, in fact.

Julien

If I hear of any one....

Fouqué

You, Julien. I want you.

Julien

Me? I’m honored, but I’m soon to take my vows. And, besides that, I’ve got this tutoring job. I’m not a priest, but I am of a scholarly turn....

Fouqué

With your education, we could make three times what I’m making now....

Julien

Really, I’m touched, but....

Fouqué

You’re not cut out to be a priest.

Julien

Everyone seems to think that, except me.

Fouqué

You’re ambitious, Julien.

Julien

Who denies it?

Fouqué

And, you’ve quarreled with Reynal or you wouldn’t be here.

Julien

You’ve a good head on your shoulders for judging people. You’ll make your fortune.

Fouqué

Julien, if we become partners we’ll be rich in a few years....

Julien

But, I’d like to keep my tutoring position, just for the present.

Fouqué

Reynal despises you, like the mud on his boots....

Julien

I have certain reasons...I also have to think of my vocation.

Fouqué

If you don’t feel like living with me, you can go back to the seminary after a short time. And, I can promise you the best parish in the district, because I supply firewood to the Archbishop and several of the leading citizens who need it for their factories, so....

Julien

I get the parish, because you supply the firewood? (he laughs)

Fouqué

Exactly. You’re too proud. It’s honest labor.

Julien

You’re right. I am too proud. I don’t want to be a merchant.

Fouqué

As a merchant, I’ll be able to buy and sell you in five years.

Julien

That’s true. But a tutor, a priest, has a certain position.

Fouqué

Shit. That may have been true fifty years ago, but not today. Money counts today.

Julien

Not at the highest levels.

Fouqué

Who’s talking about the highest levels?

Julien (serious)

I am.

Fouqué

You want to join the aristocracy?

Julien

With all my heart and soul.

Fouqué (whistles)

I always knew you were ambitious. But, that’s exactly why you shouldn’t be a priest.

Julien

On the contrary, that’s exactly why I should become a priest. There are only two roads for a poor man in France. They are the Army and the Clergy. I have chosen the Clergy because since Napoleon, it is clear that the most one can hope for from the Army is to be a General.

Fouqué

The most one can hope to be.... This beats all.

Julien

As you said, I am ambitious. I’ve never told anyone of my dreams before. I forbid you ever to repeat it.

Fouqué

Who would believe me? Still, a few years with me. You could build a nest egg....

Julien

Why should I throw away a half dozen years of my life? I’d be twenty- eight by then, and at that age Napoleon had already performed his greatest deeds. Who knows, if after obscurely heaping up money selling timber, my soul wouldn’t be as coarse as the merchandise.

Fouqué

Napoleon again. If you feel degraded to be a timber merchant, I’ll say no more.

Julien

I don’t mean it that way. But, surely you can see it’s not the timber from which heroes are made.

Fouqué

I suppose so.

Julien

It’s not a choice between vice and virtue, but between a prosperous, though mediocre, future and a glorious dream. Perhaps I have no real strength of character or I wouldn’t doubt my capacity to work for you for a while and re-emerge as a hero.

Fouqué

Napoleon...heroes...aristocracy? What next? And yet, you put up with Reynal’s insults.

Julien

What if I took possession of his wife right under his nose?

Fouqué

And now, a Don Juan!

Julien

I owe it to myself to become her lover.

Fouqué

Think of the risk.

Julien

One must dare. Besides, if I do make a name for myself, and someone jeers at me for having been a tutor, I can say that love drove me to it.

Fouqué

But, what makes you think you’ll succeed with her. She’s got a reputation for being pretty stuck up.

Julien

Oh, of success, there’s no doubt. (nonchalantly) I’ll have to tell her I love her.

Fouqué

But, for an inexperienced gauche person like you, to love a great lady.

Julien

I may be inexperienced and crude, but at least I won’t be weak.

Fouqué

Julien....

Julien

Yes, and lacking in character, too. I’d have made a bad soldier for Napoleon. But a little intrigue with the lady of the house will keep me amused for a while. I must tell her I lover her at once.

(He leaves, leaving Fouqué stunned.)

CURTAIN