"You know the Colonel? To-morrow he will interview you about the payment and the interest."
And the Prince turned his back without more words, leaving the usurer satisfied with his discourteous brevity. A great gentleman could not talk in any other way. He liked to have dealings with men of that sort.
Alicia, who had followed the scene from a distance, came forward to meet him, holding out her hands inconspicuously.
"Take it!" Michael's right hand thrust the bank notes forward so rudely that the offer was almost a blow.
His shame for what he had just done expressed itself in a confusion of protests.
"Women! Of all the fool things I have ever done!"
But Alicia, with the bank notes in her hand, was already thinking of nothing but the tables.
"You will see great things. You know we have formed a partnership: you get half."
Mastered once more by the invisible demon that was singing numbers and colors in her ear, she went away without thanking him.
He also left. He was afraid of meeting the money lender again, and having him bow familiarly; he imagined the entire crowd in the rooms had followed attentively his interview with the old man and had smiled when he received the money.