“Insensible!  Say that it breaks my heart, my dear sir.”

“But will you not permit yourself to be touched by the misery of a man who is young, intelligent, courageous, who will drown if a hand is not held out to help him?  For you, the assistance that I ask so earnestly is nothing—­”

“Three thousand francs!  Nothing!  Bless me!  How you talk!”

“For me, if you refuse me, it is death.”

Saniel began to speak with his eyes fixed on the hands of his watch, but presently, carried away by the fever of the situation, he raised them to look at Caffie, and to see the effect that he produced on him.  In this movement he made a discovery that destroyed all his calculations.

Caffie’s office was a small room with a high window looking into the court; never having been in this office except in the evening, he had not observed that this window had neither shutters nor curtains of muslin or of heavier stuff; there was nothing but the glass.  To tell the truth, two heavy curtains of woollen damask hung on either side of the window, but they were not drawn.  Talking to Caffie, who was placed between him and this window, Saniel suddenly perceived that on the other side of the court, in the second wing of the building, on the second story, were two lighted windows directly opposite to the office, and that from there any one could see everything that occurred in the office.

How should he execute his plan under the eyes of these people whom he saw coming and going in this room?  He would be lost.  In any case, it was risking an adventure so hazardous that he would be a fool to attempt it, and he was not that; never had he felt himself so much the master of his mind and nerves.

Also, it was not only to save Caffie’s life that he argued, it was to save himself in grasping this loan.

“I can only, to my great regret, repeat to you what I have already said, my dear sir.  I have no ready money.”

And he held his jaw, groaning, as if this refusal aroused his toothache.

Saniel rose; evidently there was nothing for him to do but to go.  It was finished, and instead of being in despair he felt it as a relief.

But, as he was about to leave the room, an idea flashed through his mind.

He looked at his watch, which he had not consulted for some time; it was twenty minutes after five; there yet remained four minutes, five at the most.

“Why do you not draw these curtains?” he said.  “I am sure your sufferings are partly caused by the wind that comes in this window.”

“Do you think so?”

“I am sure of it; you should be warm about the head, and avoid currents of air.”

Passing behind Caffie, he went to the window to draw the curtains, but the cords would not move.

“It is years since they were drawn,” Caffie said.  “Doubtless the cords are entangled.  I will bring the light.”

And, taking the lamp, he went to the window, holding it high in order to throw light on the cords.