Raoul
By any means possible.
Vautrin
You will shrink from nothing? Magic and hell will not intimidate you?
Raoul
Hell is nothing, if it yields me paradise.
Vautrin What is hell but the hulks and the convicts decorated by justice and the police with brandings and manacles, and driven on their course by that wretchedness from which they have no escape? Paradise is a fine house, sumptuous carriages, delightful women, and the prestige of rank. In this world there exist two worlds. I put you in the fairest of them, I remain myself in the foulest, and if you remember me, it is all I ask of you.
Raoul While you make me shudder with horror, you fill me with the frenzy of delight.
Vautrin (slapping him on the shoulder)
You are a child! (Aside) Have I not said too much to him? (He rings.)
Raoul (aside) There are moments when my inmost nature revolts from the acceptance of his benefits. When he put his hand on my shoulder it was like a red-hot iron; and yet he has never done anything but good to me! He conceals from me the means, but the ends are all for me.
Vautrin
What are you saying there?
Raoul
I am resolved to accept nothing, unless my honor—
Vautrin We will cake care of your honor! Is it not I who have fostered your sense of honor? Have I ever compromised it?