“No,” replied Angelo. “I will not.”
“Then, if you intend to imperil both of us by acting so injudiciously, I, for one, do not intend to suffer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Simply this. If you are determined not to interfere, and to allow the question to be put and the stream of allegations to pour forth from the Socialists, I shall, in order to save myself, place myself on the side of Morini.”
“Of course, my dear Jules. You are always on the side which pays you best,” sneered the other.
“And in your company,” remarked the Frenchman quite coolly, adding in a firm voice, “I wish you to give me a line to Montebruno now, this moment, and I will take it to him in the Camera—a word to him to postpone the question.”
“I shall do nothing of the sort. I do not intend to sacrifice my future because of your sentimentalities. You are defending Morini.”
“Yes,” he cried. “I will defend him! I tell you again, and very clearly, that if Montebruno speaks in the Camera to-day you will be relieved of office.”
“Oh, how’s that?”
“I am speaking plainly,” Dubard said, with knit brows.