"I shall do so after we have dispatched this affair," said Hench sharply. "You ask me what I wish you to do. I reply, clear my character."
"How can I do that?"
"In a way best known to yourself. But you are well aware that Madame Alpenny is the guilty person."
"I am not."
"Don't tell lies. It is better worth my while to pay you two thousand a year to prove her guilty and me innocent, than for me to give the income to you merely for the sake of your holding your tongue. That's a thing you never did and never will do."
Spruce considered. "If I prove Madame Alpenny to be guilty," he said, with a greedy gleam in his eyes, "will you pay me the two thousand a year?"
"I'll think about it."
"Then I do nothing. To be quite plain, I can clear your character in the way you say----"
"Ah, I knew you were lying."
"----But I shan't do so unless you agree, in the presence of Vane, to give me my price."