I think it was really difficult for me to conceal my excitement. I hurled my cigar angrily into the fireplace, while my eye carefully measured both the window and Magnus...no, this carcass was too big to play ball with.
At that moment the loss of my wealth had not yet fully impressed itself upon my mind and it was that which maddened me as much as the brazen tone of Magnus and the patronizing manner of the old scoundrel. In addition, I dimly sensed something portentous of evil and sorrow, like a threat: as if some real danger were lurking not in front of me but behind my back.
“What is this all about?” I shouted, stamping my foot.
“What is this all about?” replied Magnus, like an echo. “Yes, I really cannot understand why you are so excited, Wondergood. You have so frequently offered me this money and even forced it upon me and now, when the money is in my hands, you want to call the police! Of course,” Magnus smiled—“there is a slight distinction here: in placing your money so magnanimously at my disposal, you still remained its master and the master of the situation, while now...you understand, old friend: now I can simply drive you out of this house!”
I looked at Magnus significantly. He replied with no less a significant shrug of the shoulders and cried angrily:
“Stop your nonsense. I am stronger than you are. Do not try to be more of a fool than is absolutely necessitated by the situation.”
“You are an unusually brazen scoundrel, Signor Magnus!”
“Again! How these sentimental souls do seek consolation in words! Take a cigar and listen to me. I have long needed money, a great deal of money. In my past, which I need not disclose to you, I have suffered certain...failures. They irritated me considerably. Fools and sentimental souls, you understand? My energy was imprisoned under lock and key, like a bird in a cage. For three years I sat in this cursed cage, awaiting my chance....”
“And all that—in the beautiful Campagna?”
“Yes, in the beautiful Campagna...and I had already begun to lose hope, when you appeared. I find it difficult to express myself at this point....”