I am, as you know, a hardworking man with a responsible position and a family to support.

But here in Paris I come on to the fringe of a circle of life with which I have no direct connection, and yet whose happenings sometimes touch upon the lives of my friends and intimates.

It is a circle of life into which is drawn much that is splendid, much that is brilliant; but, monsieur, it is life outside the law, life which does as it thinks fit, which lives its own way, and recognizes no laws save its own interests." I nodded.
"Go on, Louis, please," I said, "Tell me, for example, who these men are whom I am going to meet." "They are men," Louis answered, "who have great influence in that world of which I spoke.

The law cannot touch them, or if it could it would not.

They wield a power greater than the power which drives the wheels of government in this country.