"When you came to tell me of your appointment and offered me your services, I did not think that I should need them so soon," he said.
Petit-Claud studied the fine face of this man who sat opposite him in the office chair, and scarcely listened to the details of the case, for he knew more of them already than the speaker. As soon as he saw Sechard's anxiety, he said to himself, "The trick has succeeded."
This kind of comedy is often played in an attorney's office. "Why are the Cointets persecuting him?" Petit-Claud wondered within himself, for the attorney can use his wit to read his clients' thoughts as clearly as the ideas of their opponents, and it is his business to see both sides of the judicial web.
"You want to gain time," he said at last, when Sechard had come to an end. "How long do you want? Something like three or four months?"
"Oh! four months! that would be my salvation," exclaimed David.
Petit-Claud appeared to him as an angel.
"Very well. No one shall lay hands on any of your furniture, and no one shall arrest you for four months——But it will cost you a great deal," said Petit-Claud.
"Eh! what does that matter to me?" cried Sechard.
"You are expecting some money to come in; but are you sure of it?" asked Petit-Claud, astonished at the way in which his client walked into the toils.
"In three months' time I shall have plenty of money," said the inventor, with an inventor's hopeful confidence.
"Your father is still above ground," suggested Petit-Claud; "he is in no hurry to leave his vines."