Read it through once

On my first arrival in Germany I was in danger of being gulled by a person who represented himself as an architect and who wished to engage me as assistant on a job of work which he had on hand. He wanted a traveller — to go along and make measurements. He made it plain that I must be willing to travel, and to sleep in all sorts of public accommodations; and, when I asked him the pay for the job, he said, with an air of generous frankness, that it was not to be a business arrangement at all, but simply a friendship — a long, affectionate, confidential friendship — which should last forever; and that the only money to be expected would be a little for travelling expenses now and then, if we happened to meet with a locomotive.