Arnault decided to make one move before the final one.

Perhaps only this would be required; perhaps it might prepare the way for more serious action.

They talked over business.

Arnault, permitting the other to see through a veiled distinctness of language that he was prospering, remarked, "By the way, I have a little transaction which I wish you would carry out for us," and mentioned an affair of ordinary brokerage, concluding, in off-hand tones, "from what you said some days since I infer that you may find a little money handy at present.

I can let you have a check for five hundred or a thousand just as well as not.