“You won’t peach if I tell you the dodge?”
His companions assured him that he might have every confidence in them.
“Very well; I make my money in the Champs Elysees, and sometimes get a harvest twice a day.”
“But there are no shoemakers’ shops there.”
“You are a fool,” answered Toto contemptuously. “Do you think I blackmail thieves? That wouldn’t be half good enough. Honest people, or at least people who call themselves honest, are my game. These are the ones who can be made to pay up.”
Tantaine shuddered; he remembered that Mascarin had made use of the same expression, and at once surmised that Toto must have had an occasional ear to the keyhole.
“But,” objected Polyte, “honest people have no occasion to pay up.”
Toto struck his glass so heavily on the table that it flew to shivers.
“Will you let me speak?” said he.
“Go on, go on, my boy,” returned his friend.