"Suppose--I only say suppose, mind--that I was able to find fifty."
"I won't take a penny less than a hundred pounds--not one centime."
"Would you undertake to go abroad?"
"Go abroad! I'll be shot if I would. You might go abroad. I have my business to attend to. You forget that I am a private detective in a very extensive way."
"For how long will you keep silence?"
"A month."
"Then, in that case, I must decline to advance you even so much as a hundred pence."
"Two months."
"No--nor in that case either."
"Three months."