"If you were to repeat this to me forever—"
"Perhaps you would consent to pluck a last feather from the wing of that generous duchess."
"I repeat to you, it must not be thought of. To find in three hours twenty-five thousand francs more, after all the sacrifices she has already made—it would be madness to think of it."
"To please you, fortunate mortal, one would try an impossibility."
"Oh! she has already tried it: this was to borrow one hundred thousand francs from her husband, and she succeeded; but these are experiments that cannot be tried twice. Let us see, my dear Badinot, until now you have never had any reason to complain of me. I have always been generous; try to obtain some delay from this miserable Petit Jean. You know I always can find means to recompense those who serve me; this last affair once hushed, I will take a new flight—you shall be content with me."
"Petit Jean is as inflexible as you are unreasonable."
"I!"
"Try only to interest once more your generous friend in your sad fate. The devil! Tell her right out the truth; not as you have already said, that you are the dupe, but that you are the forger himself."
"No, never will I make such an acknowledgment; it would be shame without any advantage."
"Do you prefer that she should learn it to-morrow by the 'Police
Gazette'?"