“Would you really?”
“O you young men!” cried the Elder. “I don’t know what you are made of nowadays. In my time there was more fire. I repeat it—I would give a thousand francs to know her, and it would be nothing.”
“All right,” smiled the Younger. “I’ll take you.”
“Take me? Where?” asked the mystified Elder.
“Why, to Susannah—for a thousand francs.”
“To Susannah! My poor young man, little you know about it. I have been here a month, and it isn’t so easy as you think.”
“On the contrary,” contradicted the Younger suavely, “it is far easier than you think. I happen to know a good deal about it, for I am personally acquainted with her. I have shaken her hand, I have dined at the villino, I——”
“Mother of Heaven!” The Elder furiously clutched his arm. “You know her, and you talk like this! You sit here calmly! You laugh! You lead me by the nose! You——”
Words failed him, and he could only work his fingers into the Younger’s muscles.
That young man tasted of his advantage.