“Thank you, Percival. The cold water with pleasure, a spoon, and the basin of sugar. Eau sucrée , my friend⁠—nothing more.”

“Sugar-and-water for a man of your age!⁠—There! mix your sickly mess. You foreigners are all alike.”

“Now listen, Percival. I will put our position plainly before you, as I understand it, and you shall say if I am right or wrong. You and I both came back to this house from the Continent with our affairs very seriously embarrassed⁠—”

“Cut it short! I wanted some thousands and you some hundreds, and without the money we were both in a fair way to go to the dogs together. There’s the situation. Make what you can of it. Go on.”