"I have never seen anything like it."
"There are a good many things you have not seen, Brown--but to work. Take a pencil and paper and note down what I say. You can tell me when I have done if you agree or not."
Brown did as he was told, and De Bac spoke slowly and carefully.
"The money I have given you is absolutely your own on the following terms. You will publish the manuscript I left with you, enlarge your business, and work as you have hitherto worked--as a 'sweater.' You may speculate as much as you like. You will not lose. You need not avoid the publication of religious books, but you must never give in charity secretly. I do not object to a big cheque for a public object, and your name in all the papers. It will be well for you to hound down the vicious. Never give them a chance to recover themselves. You will be a legislator. Strongly uphold all those measures which, under a moral cloak, will do harm to mankind. I do not mention them. I do not seek to hamper you with detailed instructions. Work on these general lines, and you will do what I want. A word more. It will be advisable whenever you have a chance to call public attention to a great evil which is also a vice. Thousands who have never heard of it before will hear of it then--and human nature is very frail. You have noted all this down?"
"I have. You are a strange man, M. De Bac."
M. De Bac frowned, and Brown began to tremble.
"I do not permit you to make observations about me, Mr. Brown."
"I beg your pardon, sir."
"Do not do so again. Will you agree to all this? I promise you unexampled prosperity for ten years. At the end of that time I shall want you elsewhere. And you must agree to take a journey with me."
"A long one, sir?" Brown's voice was just a shade satirical.