University of Virginia Library

6. CHAPTER VI.

In a small apartment in the rear of a pawnbroker's shop, with
which it communicated by a low door, sat a small, thin man, about
fifty years of age, poring over an old book of charges. His head
was large — too large for his little person — and covered with thick,
black hair, slightly mixed with gray. His forehead was high and
retreating, and his eyebrows arched. His dark eyes were narrow-lidded
and almost-shaped, and were restless and sharp. His nose
was long, high set, and curving over the upper lip like the beak of
an eagle. He had a heavy beard, which was shaved only about the
mouth, which feature was thin-lipped, and expressive of avarice.
A black, oily, silk cap was stuck on the top of his head, the tassel of
which dangled over his left ear. He was seated in an ancient
leather arm-chair, with a high, straight back. Before him was a
round walnut stand, on which lay his account-book, bundles of
dirty looking papers, writing materials, and a huge snuff-box, into
whied every minute or two, he would thrust his fingers and replenish
his capacious nose. A tallow candle, in an old brass candlestick
afforded the only light in the room, which was low and small, meagerly
furnished, and on all sides piled to the ceiling with `pledged'
goods. The door to the front shop was open, but the shop itself
was dark and closed, in conformity with the law, limiting pawn-brokers'
hours to sundown.

`The three thousand four hundred dollars,' he went on, muttering
over his accounts, `advanced six months ago to Col. Bevens, on his
bond and mortgage, are due to-morrow! Good investment, at twenty-seven
per cent. per annum. Here is his note, in which he desires
two months, at six per cent. increase of the rate of interest,
half per annum — ten per cent. per annum! I think I must oblige
him! Then foreclose! for he lives too high ever to pay! Good
property, and worth twelve thousand under the hammer! Here is
the one thousand dollars loaned Mr. Driscoll, on a mortgage of his
stock in — bank. That will pass into my hands, without question,
as Driscoll came to me last night for a new loan, and this is due on
the eleventh! Here is that young spendthrift's account — Duncan
Powell. Last advance July 25th, seven hundred and fifty dollars!
This is a good business for me! He will be of age in February.
At fifty per cent. payable thirty days after! Where does all the
money melt to, I advance him? Five months ago I made the first
payment on his bond, and I have now in his favor—'

A light footstep interrupted the money-lender, and looking up,
he waited, listening its approach, when a beautiful young Jewess,
with eyes like load-stars, entered the apartment, and tapping him
playfully on his large veined forehead, said, in a rich-keyed tone,

`Father, we have been waiting supper for you, and mother bade
me call you.'

`True — true! I had forgot, Ruth: you did quite right to remind
me! These accounts, you see, are so absorbing. I hope, child,' he
added, smiling kindly over his black beard, `that you will always be
a good girl, and repay me for my toil for your happiness.'

`Indeed, father, I trust I shall never do any thing to make you
unhappy.'

`I trust not — I believe not, Ruth dear,' he said, as he followed
her from the low room up a flight of stairs, dimly lighted. She
preceded him into a handsome apartment, brilliantly lighted, and
most sumptuously furnished with a rich tea service of silver, neatly
arranged upon a table in the centre. Never was a greater contrast
between the room just quitted below and this show of wealth and
luxury above stairs. Mr. Goldschnapp threw aside his oily silk cap
at the door, and, exchanging his old shop-coat for a gorgeously flowered
Indian dressing-robe, also, as he entered, presented as striking
an opposite to himself, below stairs, as could well be conceived. At
the table, before the tea-tray, sat a handsome, dark-eyed middle-aged
Jewess, in a rich head-dress of crimson and orange, and a very gay
silk dress.

`We waited, Jacob, till the muffins were cold, but I have ordered
fresh,' she said, in the good-natured tone of an even-tempered light-hearted
person. `I rung the bell no less than four times.'

`I heard it, Rebecca, but I as instantly let it pass from my mind.
So Ruth is to have a few young friends this evening, that is the reason
of her hurrying Pa! I see you are lighted up early, child!'

`It is afte eight some time, and they are to be here at half-past,
father. There is the bell, now! Who can it be, so soon?'

`It may be some one on business with me; I have certain customers
whom I have told to come to the house-door when the shop
is shut.'

`A gentleman wants to see you,' said the servant-woman, coming
to the door.

`Let him wait,' said Mrs. Goldschnapp; `and you finish your tea.
Send for his name, and if he is one you care to ask up, invite him.'

`He says he will wait your leisure, sir,' reported the girl, again
appearing at the door.

`Some poor man in distress, I dare say, and wants money,' said
the lady. `Is he in the hall?'

`No, marm, but outside.'

Mr. Goldschnapp was hurrying through his tea, when the bell
rung again, and the servant brought up a slip of paper.

`It is the same young gentleman, sir, and he says give you this
bit of paper.'

`It is my young friend, Mr. Powell. Go down and ask him to
come up, girl. Ruth, eh! How are you looking? Well, I see!
He is a nice young person, this Mr. Powell! He would make a
good match when he comes of age, if he did n't run through with
his fortune before the honey-moon!'

`Why, he is a Christian, father!'

`In courtesy, Ruth,' said Jacob, smiling. `Besides, if your mother
tells me truly, you are more Christian than Jewess.'

The young dark-browed girl blushed, and was at a loss how to reply,
though Jacob was not a very strict Israelite, when the person
alluded to appeared in the door, cloaked and capped. He was gazing
upon the brilliant domestic scene, which the suddenly thrown-open
door had so unexpectedly displayed, with looks that plainly
indicated, that he was quite unprepared for anything of the kind.
Jacob enjoyed his surprise a moment, and then rising from the table,
shook him heartily by the hand, made him throw aside his cloak,

presented him to his wife and daughter, and placed him on the
fourth side of the tea-table. Duncan was not a little astonished at
this reception, in such a place, for his two previous interviews had
been in the room below, when his visits found the money-lender
there. He had been but twice in person before, his drafts upon
him having at other times been presented through Peter, or some
other person.

`I hope you have been quite well, Mr. Powell,' said Jacob, with
that courtesy with which he always made inquiries after the health
of his forty and fifty per cent interests!

Duncan satisfied him on that point, and then devoted himself
with a great flow of light small talk to Ruth, with whose beauty he
had instantly been profoundly impressed. Jacob did not show any
signs of disliking this, for though Duncan was not a Jew, he was
rich, which was the next thing to it.

`I was not aware you had a family, and so interesting a one, Mr.
Goldschnapp,' said Duncan, glancing first at the handsome Mrs.
Goldschnapp, and then letting his ardent gaze dwell upon the oriental
beauty of the bewitching Ruth.

`I am proud to have the opportunity of making you acquainted
with the ladies, Mr. Powell.'

`I assure you I feel honored; and I shall avail myself of your
permission to visit you often,' he added, addressing and bowing to
mother and daughter.

The tea over, Duncan led Ruth to a harp which stood in a corner
of the room, and was soon so lost in listening to her ravishing song,
and with some spirited flirting in the intervals, that he quite forgot
that he came on business, till Jacob, with characteristic caution,
seeing that they had become quite well enough acquainted for a
first interview, approached him and said, aside.

`Did you wish to see me on business, Mr. Powell? If so, I am
at your service!'

Duncan started with recollection, and bidding the lovely Jewess
and her mother good night, followed Mr. Goldschnapp down stairs
into the little room where he transacted his business. In the hall
above Jacob had resumed his greasy cap and coat, in which Duncan
was to learn he was now no longer the polite host, but the usurious
money-lender.

`Take that chair, Mr. Powell,' he said, as he bolted the oaken
door and habitually arranged the key, to prevent the inspection of
the eye of curiosity from without.

`Your daughter is very beautiful,' said Duncan — his thoughts
still lingering in the room he had quitted, `how old is she?'

`Eighteen in October! a dutiful daughter.'

`An only child?'

`Yes — but there is the chair I set for you, Mr. Powell. Now if
you have business with me I am ready to attend to you.' And the
money-lender took his book from a little cupboard behind him and
laid it upon the table, while he gazed through his spectacled eyes
upon him, took a huge pinch of snuff, and waited for him to make
known the object of his visit.

`My purpose in calling on you is, to obtain six thousand dollars!'
said Duncan, hesitating, before he could name this large sum.

Mr. Goldschnapp made no reply, but thrusting his fist into his
snuff-box, took up a whole handful, and applying his nose to it, began
to snuff away for a few moments with unusual energy.

`I must have the money, Mr. Goldschnapp,' said Duncan, resolutely,
seeing the money-lender still did not speak.

After the Jew had continued to snuff a little while longer he fixed
a steady look upon his borrower, and with a deep grunt, that might
be construed either as assent or dissent, slowly turned over the
leaves of his cash-book, and stopping, when at length he came to
Duncan's account. Over this he glanced rapidly, and then, throwing
his spectacles over his forehead, looked him full in the face, and
slowly repeated,

`Six thousand dollars?'

`Yes.'

The money-lender smiled, peculiarly, opened a filed paper, and refitting
his glasses, began to read:

`In consideration of the sum of —'

`I do not want to listen to my agreement, I want the money advanced
according to it. Is not my bond as good for the amount I
ask, as for what I have already drawn?'

`Listen,' said the Jew, in a quiet tone. `You have in this paper
bound yourself to pay over to me, thirty days after coming of age,
the amount of a legacy left you by an aunt, named Sarah Duncan,
in consideration of receiving from me certain moneys in anticipation,
to an amount not exceeding one half of the amount of said legacy,
which is in all twelve thousand dollars.'

`One half!' exclaimed Duncan, quickly; `the agreement certainly
can have nothing to say about limiting the sum to less than
the twelve thousand dollars that I was to receive.'

`Am I to advance you twelve thousand for twelve thousand,
young man, think you?' asked the money-lender, with a sarcastic
leer. `The sum that comes to you is six thousand dollars only, according
to the letter of the bond.'

`True — too true!' cried Duncan, rising up and pacing to and
fro the little room. `With the idea only of the amount of my legacy
in my mind, and without reflecting that your fifty per cent.
was to come out of it, I have been deluding myself with the impression
I was to obtain the whole. What a fool I have been.'

`You should have noticed the wording of the bond “half the
amount of the legacy,” and you would not have been led into this
error!'

`I merely glanced at it after you drew it up, and hastily signed it,
too anxious to get the money to heed this! How much is there in
my favor? I have not received more than four thousand dollars, I
think!'

`Let us see,' said Jacob, bending over the book and reading
aloud —

           

`May 6th — (the date of the agreement,) delivered self,	$1000 00
May 30th — five hundred dollars, pr. draft, accepted,	1500 00
June 12th — nine hundred dollars, pr. draft accepted,	500 00
July 1st — one thousand dollars, delivered self,	600 00
July 12th — eight hundred dollars, paid man Peter,	800 00
July 25th — seven hundred and fifty, paid check,	750 00

`The whole amount is —'

`Tell me, quickly,' cried Duncan, who had listened with the
greatest impatience to this recapitulation.

`Five thousand one hundred and fifty dollars.'

`Impossible.'

`Run the figures up yourself, Mr. Powell?'

`No — I am satisfied, it must be so. And I am to receive but a
pitiful eight hundred and fifty dollars, when I expected six thousand.
This is bad!'

`But this was your own strange error,' remarked the Jew, coolly.

`It was, indeed. But this will not help me now. Yet I must
have the money,' he added, with bitter vehemence.

He continued silent a few moments, with a face almost haggard
with the feelings of his painful position, and seemed to be reflecting
upon some course. At length he said, in a tone partly imperative,
partly in entreaty,

`You must loan me the sum I want, Mr. Goldschnapp!'

`The eight hundred and fifty dollars, certainly.'

`The six thousand!'

`I never lend money without security,' replied Jacob, dryly.

`Look ye, sir Jew,' said Duncan, angry, and nearly insane with
his disappointment, as his heavy responsibilities stared him in the
face; `you have drawn my fortune from me by usury, and unless you
loan me five thousand dollars to-morrow, I swear, solemnly, I will
not only repudiate my bond, which, given by a minor, is illegal,
but will make an appeal to the law.'

`You cannot prove the usury,' said Jacob, unmoved, and speaking
blandly; `our agreement reads, that I am to advance you half the
amount of the legacy before you are twenty-one, on condition of receiving,
within thirty days after your majority, the whole amount
of it. It does not say that I am not to pay you more after you are
twenty-one on receiving it, nor is one word said about interest. It
is carefully worded, you perceive, and makes me its trustee de facto.
I am well acquainted with the existing disposition of the legacy,
and shall take such steps as, in case you should forfeit your honor
in the matter, to throw obstacles in the way of your receiving it
until you redeem your bond.'

`What shall I do? I cannot do without money,' said Duncan,
impatiently, quite forgetting, in his perplexity, his proposition to
defraud him.

`Be calm, Mr. Powell, and I can, perhaps, propose a plan that
will relieve you,' said the money-lender, too used to such scenes to
suffer his borrower's anger to move him; and ever having an eye
closely on his own interests.

`Speak — for I am in despair!'

`By our agreement you are entitled to receive yet from me eight
hundred and fifty dollars whensoever you shall demand it.'

`Well —'

`You want five thousand dollars beside!'

`Yes — failing in getting which I shall blow out my brains!'

`No man ever blowed his brains out but what, if he could, he
would have repented it the next day. The twelve thousand dollars
of your property is spent, and —'

`Yes, yes — can I realize any thing from what I expect from my
father?'

`That is what I am about to suggest. I have no fears about the
legacy, as I made myself quite sure of obtaining it before I loaned
you a dollar in anticipation of it. Therefore your proposition to
repudiate it, goes only for a little angry discharge of choler, and has
not disturbed me. So, letting that pass, I am willing to serve you
further in your wishes. Do you know the amount of your father's
real estate?'

`It has been recently valued at ninety thousand dollars.'

`So I have learnt. He has bank stock to the amount of forty
thousand more. You may or may not be his heir, and he may live
long. His age is fifty-six. Yet I am told his health is failing.'

`Yes,' said Duncan, eagerly, `he wrote me today of his ill-health;'
his desire to obtain in any way the sum he wanted, withering
in him all filial feeling or sympathy for his father's illness,

which he was now rather disposed to make use of as an instrument
for the furtherance of his object.

`You need this money greatly?'

`It is indispensable to my honor,' answered Duncan, warmly,
while his eye lighted up with hope as he saw that the Jew appeared
to be considering. Jacob slightly curled his lip when he heard the
word `honor,' and then proceeded, in a tone low and approaching
the confidential.

`Has your father made a will?'

`Not to my knowledge.'

`He gives you no money, ever?'

`No.'

`And you are an only child?'

`Yes. To what do these inquiries lead?'

`He is in poor health,' continued Jacob, without heeding or seeming
to heed his words.

`You know all that I know,' he answered, with a look of annoyance.

`I can get you the money, I think, on a draft on your father.'

`A draft!' exclaimed Harry, with astonishment.

`Yes. I will cash your draft on him for six thousand dollars.'

`He will never pay it.'

`Leave that to me,' said the money-lender, with a smile. `Make
the draft, and I will discount it for you to-morrow — that is, give
you five thousand dollars for the draft for six thousand. There is
risk, you know, and I must be paid for it.'

`Risk,' repeated Duncan, laughing. `He would throw the draft
into the fire-place and pitch the bearer out of the window. Yet,
upon my soul. I should be glad to get the money in any way.'

`Make the draft. There is pen and paper,' said Jacob, quietly.
`Your father's name is Beasely Powell, I believe?'

`You seem to know much about me and my family,' said Duncan,
as he took up the pen.

`I knew your father, and had transactions with him in money
matters during the war, when he was of the commissarait! You
resemble him!'

`That will do,' said Jacob, after twice very carefully reading it
over through his spectacles. `Call on me to-morrow, at noon, and
you shall have the money.'

`You are a noble fellow, Goldschnapp,' cried Duncan, grasping his
hand. `How you are to come over the old man I have no idea.
But as you are willing to advance me the money I suppose you feel
you are quite safe, though I wouldn't, to tell you the truth, discount
my own order on him for less than one hundred per cent. He
would not send me fifty dollars to save me from a prison. You
have made me perfectly happy, old boy! I felt ten minutes ago
like hanging myself.'

`When you get this money, I advise you to keep away from the
gambling table, Mr. Powell.'

`You give me good advice, and I will try and follow it, Good night!
Remember me kindly to your lovely daughter, and respects to
madam. By the by,' added he, with some hesitation, as he was
leaving the room, `I have objections — you know — trifling, to be
sure, — but then certain objections to coming here to-morrow —
pawnbroker's, you know! Beg pardon, Goldschnapp; but I should
esteem it a great favor if you would be so clever as to drop in upon
me at my lodgings, with the cool five thousand.'

`This would be quite as objectionable, for it would be the pawnbroker
coming himself to his borrower! I will meet you at the
New Bank at half-past twelve.'

`Done. Good night,' said Duncan, shaking him heartily by the
hand, and taking his departure.

`Humph,' grunted Jacob, as he closed the street door behind him,
`I see I shall have in my hands half his fortune at fifty per cent,
before his father dies, and then, as to the other half, if I can persuade
Ruth —' here his voice fell, and he committed only to his
thoughts his further meditations.