“Your minister has been tricking you about this event,” said the concise Gobseck.
“You master me,” said the general-secretary, bowing with an air of profound respect, bordering however, on sarcasm.
“True,” said Gobseck.
“Can you mean to strangle me?”
“Possibly.”
“Well, then, begin your work, executioners,” said the secretary, smiling.
“You will see,” resumed Gigonnet, “that the sum total of your debts is added to the sum loaned by us for the purchase of the property; we have bought them up.”
“Here are the deeds,” said Gobseck, taking from the pocket of his greenish overcoat a number of legal papers.
“You have three years in which to pay off the whole sum,” said Gigonnet.
“But,” said des Lupeaulx, frightened at such kindness, and also by so apparently fantastic an arrangement. “What do you want of me?”