"You weren't an idiot; not at all; it was the best thing that could have happened for both of us--that I should find it."
"I'm afraid I can't agree. To begin with, see how awkward you've made it for me with my wife."
"Have I?"
"She can't understand what I have done which gives you any title to call yourself my friend--you!"
"Can't she?"
"And how am I going to explain? I may only be--as you suggest--a poor brute of a country solicitor; but you forget that she's a lady."
"Not for one moment. Mrs. Nash is a perfect lady; none knows that better than I do. But, if I help you to make your fortune; if we become partners in, say, a mercantile speculation; if I show you how to pour gold, and all the pretty things gold can buy, into her lap, will she require any better explanation? I think not. My dear fellow, you exaggerate the difficulties she will make; believe me.
"You talk very largely, but how are you going to do these things? I had the letter, and I didn't see my way."
"You didn't? Then that shows how fortunate it was that you communicated the contents of the letter to me; because I do. Tell me--now be frank; I'll be perfectly frank with you; it's to our common interest to be frank with each other--how far did you go?"
"I looked up Mr. Frank Clifford."