“Good! I expected you to say that!” returned Herzog, smiling. “If the business had succeeded, you would have accepted your share of the spoil without any scruples, and would have felt ready to crown me. It has failed; you are trying to get out of the responsibility, and are on the point of treating me as if I were a swindler. Still, the affair would not have been more honest in the first instance than in the second, but success embellishes everything.”
Serge looked hard at Herzog.
“What is there to prove,” replied he, “that this speculation, which brings ruin and loss to me, does not enrich you?”
“Ungrateful fellow!” observed the financier, ironically, “you suspect me!”
“Of having robbed me!” cried Serge, in a rage. “Why not?”
Herzog, for a moment, lost his temper and turned red in the face. He seized Panine violently by the arm, and said:
“Gently, Prince; whatever insults you heap upon me must be shared by you. You are my partner.”
“Scoundrel!” yelled Panine, exasperated at being held by Herzog.
“Personalities,” said the financier, in a jesting tone. “Then I take my leave!”
And loosing his hold of the Prince, he went toward the door.