"I want you, Karl, to be sure . . . But your driver doesn't know French, does he?"
"He hardly knows German, Excellenz. He's an idiot. You can speak freely."
"What I was going to say is, don't use more than ten drops out of the bottle, else. . . ."
"Very well, Excellenz. Anything more?"
"Write to me in a week's time if everything has gone off well. Write to our Paris address and not before: it would be useless."
"Then you're going back to France, Excellenz?"
"Yes, my plan is ripe."
"The same plan?"
"Yes. The weather is in our favor. It has been raining for days and the staff have told me that they mean to act on their side. So I shall be there to-morrow evening; and it will only need a touch of the thumb . . ."
"That's it, a touch of the thumb, no more. I've worked at it myself and everything's ready. But you spoke to me of another plan, to complete the first; and I confess that that one . . ."