"I will join you at nine o'clock."
"Do you or do you not wish that we should do this job together?"
"I do wish it."
"Well, then, we do not separate before evening, or else—"
"Or else?"
"I shall think that you are making 'a plant' for me, and that's the reason you wish to part company now."
"If I wished to set the 'traps' after you, what is to prevent my doing so this evening?"
"Why, everything. You did not expect that I should propose the affair to you so soon, and if you do not leave us you cannot put anybody up to it."
"You mistrust me, then?"
"Most extremely. But as what you propose may be quite true and honest, and the half of sixty thousand francs is worth a risk, I am willing to try for it; but this evening, or never; if never, I shall have my suspicions of you confirmed, and one day or other I will take care and let you dine off a dish of my cooking."