“Are we going to say here long, old tom-cat? Do you know that I am beginning to be deucedly bored?”
“When you want to carry an undertaking through to a good end, you must be patient,” rejoined Poterne, without turning his head.
“To a good end! I fancy that your end won’t be very good, you old rascal. But why does the damsel keep us waiting? Doesn’t she know that you are here? Come, Poterne, answer your friend.”
Poterne turned quickly and said in an undertone:
“Don’t call me by name, I beg you; there’s no need of the girl’s knowing my real name; she might repeat it by accident, or from stupidity, and my whole plan would be overboard.”
“You ought to be overboard yourself! But come, tell me what scheme you have thought up, and let me see if it has any sense; for I didn’t listen to you very carefully this morning.”
“It is very simple; we propose to try to make young Chérubin fall in love, in order to entangle him in an intrigue which may prove lucrative for us.”
“Alas, yes! for although ‘gold may be a mere chimera,’ all these rascally tailors refuse to make coats for me without some of that same chimera!”
“To make sure that our Adonis becomes deeply enamored, we must first of all find a pretty girl.”
“That is true; it’s the same way with jugged hare—first catch your hare.”