Vautrin You mean you would have been down in your luck; you take pretty good care not to be caught again, don't you? I suppose then that you enjoy peace of mind in this house?
Joseph
That I do, for honesty I find to be the best policy.
Vautrin
And do you quite approve of honesty?
Joseph
Oh, yes, so long as the place and the wages suit me.
Vautrin I see you are doing well, my boy. You take little and often, you save, you even have the honesty to lend a trifle at interest. That's all right, but you cannot imagine what pleasure it gives me to see one of my old acquaintances filling an honorable position. You have succeeded in doing so; your faults are but negative and therefore half virtues. I myself once had vices; I regret them as things of the past; I have nothing but dangers and struggles to interest me. Mine is the life of an Indian hemmed in by my enemies, and I am fighting in defence of my own scalp.
Joseph
And what of mine?
Vautrin
Yours? Ah! you are right to ask that. Well, whatever happens to me,
you have the word of Jacques Collin that he will never compromise you.
But you must obey me in everything!
Joseph
In everything? But—
Vautrin There are no buts with me. If there is any dark business to be done I have my "trusties" and old allies. Have you been long in this place?
Joseph
The duchess took me for her footman when she went with the court to
Ghent, last year and I am trusted by both the ladies of the house.