‘What is the use of supposing? It hasn’t done so up to the present, and we’ve netted a fair stake.’
‘But nothing nearly as much as we ought to have done.’
‘That can’t be helped. We’ve not lost, any way. But, for goodness’ sake, don’t mope like that. You make me miserable. We’ve bled our victim pretty freely, and though he has plenty more blood in him, if we cannot get it, we had better be satisfied.’
‘It’s tantalizing, nevertheless. Don’t you think we might risk another bill here?’
‘No; it would be too dangerous,’ said madame.
‘I would have nothing to do with it,’ added her husband, ‘Any attempt of that kind would betray us as sure as fate. No, no, mon cher; it can’t be done.’
The stranger sighed, and resigned himself to the situation, for he was forced to admit that the arguments used against him were unanswerable.
In a little while the party broke up. The stranger embraced the woman warmly, and, shaking hands with the man, hurried away.
Charcot and his wife lingered for a while to smoke another cigarette, and for the man to consume an absinthe.
‘Eugène is melancholy,’ the woman remarked; ‘but it’s folly to weep over the milk that is lost. If matters hadn’t turned out as they have done, we might all have raked in a snug little fortune. But, as it is, we haven’t done so badly, and we’re safe.’