"That's it, all right," Arnie agreed. "I don't know when I'll be able to leave the house again. But listen to me, what I'm saying, I never leave the house anyway."

"That's true," Dortmunder said.

"In fact," Arnie said, "the reason I'm calling, fresh offa the plane, I want you to come here."

"There? Your apartment, you mean?"

"That's where I'm gonna be, John Dortmunder, and that's where I'm gonna put before your eyes a proposition so good you'll fall right over."

"What do you mean, a proposition?"

"Dortmunder, not to go into details on this public instrument here, this telephone—"

"No no, I follow that."

"But you know," Arnie said, "in our transactions, me and you, I always give top dollar."

"That's true."

"I always had to give top dollar," Arnie reminded him, "because if I gave medium dollar like that goniff Stoon, nobody would ever come to do business with me, because of my basic unpleasantness."

"Yrm."

"Which is in the past, John Dortmunder," Arnie promised him. "Wait'll you see. You come over, I'll lay it out, you're never gonna even thought about a dollar as large as this one. Come over, I'm here, until I get my pallor back I am not leaving the apartment. Come over any time, John Dortmunder. And I'll tell you this, it's good to be back. Good-bye to you."

"Good-bye," Dortmunder told the phone after Arnie hung up. Then he also hung up, and shook his head.

"I've been patient," May reminded him.

"Let's sit down," Dortmunder said.

So they sat, and May looked alert, and Dortmunder said, "I mentioned, from time to time, a character called Arnie Albright."