“No, that would be an unpardonable crime. Hear my plan, which will satisfy us both; for after it has been carried out each of us will be sure that he has fairly won or fairly lost.
“As soon as you have possessed yourself of the real or pretended nun, leave her on some pretext, and meet me in a place to be agreed upon. We will then go together to the convent, and I will ask for M. M.
“Will seeing her and speaking to her convince you that the woman you have left at home is a mere impostor?”
“Perfectly, and I shall pay my wager with the greatest willingness.”
“I may say the same. If, when I summon M. M. to the parlour, the lay-sister tells us she is ill or busy, we will go, and the wager will be yours; you will sup with the fair, and I will go elsewhere.”
“So be it; but since all this will be at nighttime, it is possible that when you ask for her, the sister will tell you that no one can be seen at such an hour.”
“Then I shall lose.”
“You are quite sure, then, that if she be in the convent she will come down?”
“That’s my business. I repeat, if you don’t speak to her, I shall hold myself to have lost a hundred sequins, or a thousand if you like.”
“One can’t speak plainer than that, my dear fellow, and I thank you beforehand.”