Raoul
You are trifling with me.
Vautrin
Look here, Raoul! The Christovals have shut their doors upon you.
Well—to-morrow you shall be the accepted lover of the princess, and
the Montsorels shall be turned away, Montsorels though they be.
Raoul
The sight of my distress has crazed you.
Vautrin What reason have you ever had for doubting my word? Did I not give you an Arabian horse, to drive mad with envy the foreign and native dandies of the Bois de Boulogne? Who paid your gambling debts? Who made provision for your excesses? Who gave you boots, you who once went barefoot?
Raoul
You, my friend, my father, my family!
Vautrin Many, many thanks. In those words is a recompense for all my sacrifices. But, alas! when once you become rich, a grandee of Spain, a part of the great world, you will forget me; a change of atmosphere brings a change of ideas; you will despise me, and—you will be right in doing so.
Raoul
Do I see before me a genie, a spirit materialized from the Arabian
Nights? I question my own existence. But, my friend, my protector, I
have no family.
Vautrin
Well, we are making up a family for you at this very moment. The
Louvre could not contain the portraits of your ancestors, they would
overcrowd the quays.
Raoul
You rekindle all my hopes.
Vautrin
Do you wish to obtain Inez?