The old man who sells potions seems to have a very casual attitude about business. He does not seem especially concerned about making money, although he probably makes plenty of money in the long run with his "chaser." He is not at all anxious to sell the "love potion" Alan Austen has come there to buy. Instead of talking about that magic potion, the old man warns Alan about its long-term effects.
"She will want to know all you do," said the old man. "All that has happened to you during the day. Every word of it. She will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why you are looking sad....How carefully she will look after you! She will never allow you to be tired, to sit in a draught, to neglect your food. If you are an hour late, she will be terrified. She...
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will think you are killed, or that some siren has caught you."
This hardly sounds as if the old man is trying to trick or cheat Alan in the story. As a matter of fact, it seems as if the old man would find it impossible to talk the impetuous young man out of buying the love potion. Money is not a consideration with the seller, since he doesn't make any profit off the love potion but has to look to the future, when the purchaser may become so bored with marriage that he will take the drastic step of buying the "glove cleaner" or "life cleaner," which is an undetectable poison.
It seems impossible to Alan that he should ever want to escape from the loving, clinging attention and affection of his Diana, but the old man has a thoroughly cynical attitude about love and marriage. He knows that many of his first-time clients will come back to him and pay for the antidote to his powerful love potion. When Alan finally asks the price of the wonderful elixir he has come there to buy:
"It is not as dear," said the old man, "as the glove-cleaner, or life-cleaner, as I sometimes call it. No. That is five thousand dollars, never a penny less. One has to be older than you are, to indulge in that sort of thing. One has to save up for it."
"But the love potion?" said Alan.
"Oh, that," said the old man, opening the drawer in the kitchen table, and taking out a tiny, rather dirty-looking phial. "That is just a dollar."
So the old man collects only one dollar, which is not enough to pay for the ingredients in the little bottle. He may or may not collect five thousand dollars from this young customer in the far-distant future, but that is uncertain. The old man can hardly be thinking of tricking or cheating Alan. He has told him everything and given him fair warning.