They won't get much out of me, I can tell you." Andre shrugged his shoulders.
"Then," said he, "just tell me what you intend to say to Verminet when he comes to you upon the day your bills fall due, and says to you, 'Give me one hundred thousand francs for these five little bits of paper, or I go straight to your father with them' ?" "I should say, of course--ah, well, I really do not know what I should say." "You could say nothing, except that you had been imposed on in the most infamous way.

You would plead for time, and Verminet would give it to you if you would execute a deed insuring him one hundred thousand francs on the day you came of age." "A hundred thousand devils are all the rogue would get from me.

That's the way I do things, do you see?
If people try and ride roughshod over me, I merely hit out, and then just look out for broken bones.

Pay this chap?
Not I! I know the governor would make an almighty shine, but I'll choose that sooner than be had like that." He was quite serious but could only put his feelings into the language he usually spoke.
"I think," answered Andre, "that your father would forgive this imprudence, but that it will be even harder for him to do so than it was to send a doctor to number the hours he had to live.

He will forgive you because he is your father, and because he loves you; but Verminet, when he finds that the threat to go to your father does not appall you, will menace you with criminal proceedings." "Hulloo!" said Gandelu, stopping short.