“I must have time to reflect.”
“Nothing is more reasonable. There is no hurry.”
“But I am in a hurry because, if I do not pay Jardine, I shall find myself in the street, which would not be a position to offer to a wife.”
“In the street? Oh, things will not come to such a pass as that! What are the prosecutions?”
“They will soon begin; Jardine has already threatened me.”
“They are going to begin? Then they have not begun. If he does, as we presume he will, proceed by a replevin, we shall have sufficient time before the judgment. Do you owe anything to your landlord?”
“The lease expired on the fifteenth.”
“Do not pay it.”
“That is easy; it is the only thing that is easy for me to do.”
“It is an obstacle in the way of your Jardine, and may stop him a moment. We can manage this way more easily. The important thing is to warn me as soon as the fire begins. ‘Au revoir’, my dear Sir.”