"In the meanwhile, according to your old custom you borrow it wherever you can, eh?" Kotlicki mocked on.
"Oh, don't fear. I'll return yours this month yet, without fail."
"I will wait even until the reappearance of the comet of 1812; it will pass this way again in about a year. . . ."
"Don't mock me. . . . You'd not hurt people as much with a club as you do with your cynicism."
"That's my weapon!" answered Kotlicki, contracting his brows.
"Perhaps, before long, I shall marry and then I will pay up all my debts. . . ."
Kotlicki turned violently towards him, glanced straight into his eyes and began to laugh with his quiet, neighing voice, screwing his face into a grimace.
"That is the finest piece of invention that I have ever heard!"
"No, I seriously intend to marry and have already selected something: a brownstone house and a girl of twenty, a light blonde, plump, graceful and resolute. . . . If my mother helps me, I shall marry before this season is over."
"And what of the theater?"