University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.

The following day Duncan was at the place of meeting, and the
Jew promptly paid into his hands five thousand eight hundred and
fifty dollars. The delight as well as surprise of the young man,
was as boundless as his despair had been. He met his gambling
notes, and, paying off all his debts, internally resolved to be less
extravagant. The balance remaining in his hands, was about five
hundred dollars. To celebrate his good fortune, he gave a magnificent
dinner to a party of his friends, and, by the end of the feast,
became drunk with wine. Under its influence he resolved to go to
the gambling chambers, where he had lost so much, and, in revenge,
`break the bank.' His disinterested friends would have withheld
him from this piece of folly; but, headstrong and self-confident, and
rendered careless from the facility with which he found he could
obtain money from the Jew, he persuaded them to accompany him.
The fortune of the night was against him, and at twelve o'clock he
quit the rooms, leaving notes due the bank to the amount of nine
thousand dollars. This troubled him little, and finishing the night
with champagne and oysters, he sought his chambers.

The ensuing morning about nine o'clock, he was called by Peter,
who asserted that an old gentleman was outside the parlor door,
determined to see him, and would take no denial.

`I tells the gemman as how you was in bed, and 'lowed no body
to disturb you till you wakes yourse'f, and as how he could n't
come in no how.'

`Did he give his name?' asked Duncan, with a misgiving at his
conscience; for he believed it to be none else but his father!

`He says he will give he name when he come in, and so as I
could do noting wid him, and he keep pounding de door, I wakes
you. Dare! Hear dat debble knocking, master Duncan?'

`Yes;' said Duncan, rising. `Go let him into the parlor, and
tell him I will soon be out. Confound the old fellow! If, as I
suspect, it is my loving father, I am in for it!' he added, as he
hastily arranged his toilet, threw on his embroidered robe de chambre,
and thrust his foot into richly gilt Turkish slippers. In the
mean while he could hear the visiter stumbling about the room by
the aid of a stout stick, and grumbling after a fashion that could
not be mistaken by the young roué: it was his father's voice and step.

`One thing, at least, old Goldschnapp will now have a fair trial
of my draft! He certainly, indeed, can't have sent it for his acceptance,
which has brought him down in person. No, it is too short
a time! I am in, too, for nine thousand more! I protest I will
never go near another gambling-hell! Hear the old man!'

`I say, you confounded black rascal, tell your master I am waiting!
Silk sofas, mirrors the size of a barn door, satin curtains, silver,
gilding, and mahogany, as profuse as in a King's palace! Tell him
I cannot wait!'

`Ah, my dear father!' cried Duncan, opening his chamber door,
and approaching the old gentleman to embrace him, with the
looks of a son who had been winning laurels of honorable distinction
during his sojourn in town.

`What popin-jay is this?' cried Mr. Beasely Powell, with a
glance of contempt mingled with displeasure. `So, sir, you see I
have come!'

`Yes, sir, and I assure you, next to seeing you at Kirkwood, is
the profound pleasure I experience at having you visit me here. I
have been expecting you.'

`You have, hey? I guess I came upon you rather suddenly, for
all that,' he said, with a sneer. `Pretty doings this, I hear of you!'

`Indeed, sir, I regret I have done anything that displeases you!'

`You look as innocent as a babe! But that demure countenance
is not to deceive me! I have evidence enough here in this room,
of your way of life; and God knows how you support such extravagance
without a penny.'

`I am merely living like other young gentlemen in my position,
sir.'

`Your position! What would be your position if I should beggar
you, as I have a mind to do? Yes, young man; I have come down
to the city, resolved to make my will here, and leave every acre
and every dollar I am worth to charitable institutions. I will disinherit
you!'

`But, sir, what have you heard, what have I done? I came to
New York with your permission, on a visit.'

`To stay a week, and you have been absent five months! I have
heard of your dashing life on all hands. The papers every week,
of late, have had your name—such as `Mr. Duncan Powell's mare
trotted on the Avenue yesterday afternoon, harnessed in a drosky,

against Dibble's famous brown Sal, and won the purse of $500;' or
see that the `rich Mr. Duncan Powell gave a splended entertainment
at his magnificent rooms, last evening, at which Lord Catesby Field
was an invited guest;' or some such paragraph as this meets my
eye, under the head of Racing Intelligence. `The heaviest bets on
the turf were made by Duncan Powell, Esq., and Jakes Ashby,
two of the richest young men in town.' Now you ask me what I
have heard? Explain all this to me! You are a mystery! How
do you live? By gambling, eh?'

During the newspaper review of his incensed and puzzled father,
Duncan stood silent, convinced that he had no need of using further
disguise, while he could not help smiling at the accurate knowledge
of his affairs he evinced. He therefore threw off all attempt at
concealment, and said, in a tone of well-feigned sorrow,

`I admit, sir, that I have been a little wild, and most sincerely
ask your forgiveness.'

`You do admit, eh! You do acknowledge it, then?' said the old
gentleman, with a look of triumph. `Well, sir, that is one half;
that is a great step towards reformation. But as you have not
brought me into debt, for you are still a minor, and none of your
debts (for I dare say you have got in debt) would hold against me,
I will forgive you. But you must promise—'

`I will promise any thing, sir.'

`Promise, then, to return with me to Kirkwood, and live there
till I am dead.'

`I do, sir,' answered the son, readily.

`In that case you shall become heir to all my property. But if
you offend me again—'

`I never will, sir.'

`Hear me! If you offend me again or leave home, I will found
a charitable institution with my money and cut you off with a
shilling.'

`You shall never have reason to complain of me after this, sir, be
assured.'

`I don't mean to. I am going to a lawyer to have a will properly
drawn up, conveying my estate to a charitable purpose, and take it
home with me ready to be signed whenever you disobey me! So
with this, in terrorem—'

`I shall surely be as dutiful and obedient a son as a father could
wish for.'

`Now I will shake hands with you, Duncan, and let the past be
by-gone. But I don't like this late rising and this expensive show
of things about you and your rooms!'

`This brocade gown was a present, father, and the rooms,' hesitated
Duncan, `are furnished by—by the—the upholsterer. He
found every thing, I assure you!'

`Oh, well, that is better than I thought; for I feared you had
gone in debt, and then you would, in honor, though not in law, have
been bound to pay by and by, and it would have come out of my
money at last. What do you do with this black fellow in regimentals?'

`He is my body servant,' answered Duncan, gravely.

`Your lackey, eh? This must be an expensive luxury.'

`Not in the least, sir. He lives with me for my cast off clothes
and his meals, and very grateful at that. It is an act of charity to
keep him, sir.'

`I never knew you wore regimentals, Duncan,' said Mr. Powell,
dryly, and looking hard at Peter's red-faced livery.

`Have you breakfasted, father?' asked Duncan, quickly, desiring
to turn his ideas into a less annoying channel.

`No, I have just come from the boat.'

`How did you find me out, sir?'

`Every jackanapes in the city seems to know you. I asked a
fellow in a ragged jacket, who was rubbing down a horse at a stabledoor
near the river, if he could tell where you lived, and he answered
readily, `yes, he could do that,' and sent a little boy to show
me your hotel. I might have lived here twenty years and that
stable-boy would never have heard of me, rich as I am.'

`Peter, order breakfast. Excuse me a moment, father, while I
dress. Here are the morning papers,' said Duncan, leaving him, and
re-entering his chamber.

He closed the door, and immediately took from a rose-wood desk
a sheet of perfumed billet paper and rapidly penned the following
note:

Sealing and addressing this note, he called Peter into the chamber,
and privately dispatched him to deliver it into Mr. Goldschnapp's
hands.

The breakfast passed off well, and Mr. Powell felt in better
humor after it. Having some business, he said, to transact, he
proposed going out immediately after, promising Duncan to be
back and dine with him. `I am going to make that will of bequest,
boy,' said he, smiling, as he went out, `so you will have to mind
your P's and Q's.'

`I see I shall,' muttered the young spendthrift, as he closed the
door on his father. `Faith, I am lucky to get off as well as I have.
I see I must keep steady, and lead a new life, if I expect anything
from his coffers. He will surely make that will, for I saw the
determination to do so beneath his smile, as he went out, and then
a dash of the pen beggars me.'

The hour of two came and with it old Mr. Powell, who entered
with a parchment in his hand, which he held towards his son with
a look of quiet triumph in his countenance.

`It is done, Duncan,' he said, displaying the instrument. `All it
wants is the signature! Now I think I have you! You will keep
at home awhile I think now, eh?'

`What kind of a charity have you contemplated founding, in
contingency of my being disinherited?' asked Duncan, gravely.

`I call it the `Beasely Powell Foundling Hospital,' sir. I shall
give one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to establish it; that is,
if you do not behave yourself, sir.'

`Yes, sir! Peter announces dinner! Take that seat, sir! Where
can the old Jew be?' he muttered impatiently to himself.

`You live high, boy! How in the deuce do you manage to get
along without money, eh? You must explain. I fear you gamble.
We must leave for home in the next boat.'

A servant entered at this moment and handed Duncan a card.

`Ask him up! Peter, place a chair! Ah, my dear sir, how do
you do! he said, as Mr. Goldschnapp entered, dressed in a plain suit
of black. `My father, Mr. Beasely Powell—Mr.—'

`Jacobs,' whispered the money-lender.

`Mr. Jacobs, father. I hope you will find each others' society
agreeable.'

They commenced dining; but all the while, from the Jew's first
entrance, Duncan had observed his father watching and studying
the money-lender's countenance, with at intervals a look of partial
recognition, which the next moment seemed to fade from his memory.
Mr. Goldschnapp, in the mean while, conversed with both
father and son on various topics of the day, and proved himself so
agreeable, that Beasely Powell not only invited him to take wine
with him, but listened to his humorous stories with much laughter.
It was plainly the Jew's aim to make him pleased with himself.

`Ah, you are a rare hand at a story, Mr. Jacobs,' said the old
miser, after Jacob had repeated an anecdote of great raciness and
point. `How odd it is; it seems to me I have seen you before, but,
for the life of me I can't remember, and yet your name is not
familiar! It is very odd.'

`Father, will you try a little of this fricasee.'

`No, boy! no Duncan! I have dined! My son is an extravagant
liver, Mr Jacobs; four dishes of meats at one meal!'

`Young men are not so wise as older heads,' said Jacob. `By the
by, sir, I think friend Duncan here has told me you were in the
army during the late war!'

`Yes! and now, by my conscience! that is where I saw your
face!' exclaimed Mr. Powell. `But I was only in the commissariat.
Were you in the army?'

`No,' answered Jacob, dryly, `I had not that honor, but I saw
something of fighting there, however! I had some business with
the officers, which drew me to the camp occasionally.'

`You look ill, father,' said Duncan, seeing Mr. Beasely Powell
become suddenly pale.

`No, no! I am quite well. This glass of wine will help me!
There, I am better!' and he fixed his glazed look upon the quiet
features of the Jew, whose words and features had brought with
them to his mind troublesome thoughts. He did not, however,
appear to recognize him! His emotion proceeded rather from some
association of resemblance, which linked him with unpleasant
reminiscences.

`I think I now recollect hearing of you with the northern army.'
said Jacob, concealing a malicious smile beneath a quiet look, that
might have become a quaker.

`Then you never saw me,' said the troubled commissary, looking
greatly relieved. `I really for the moment began to suspect—that
is—'

Duncan watched both parties with eager and wondering interest.
His curiosity was aroused to learn what had produced so extraordinary
an effect upon his father, now believing that the Jew, by some
fortune, held a moral influence over him, that might even lead him
to pay the draft.

—`That I was a Jew whom you once had dealings with,' said
Jacob.

`Then you knew Mr. Goldschnapp.'

`If it was he you allude to; I, I have known him some years. I
was in copartnership with him till he died two years ago!'

`Dead! Thank God! Is he dead?'

`Yes.'

`Then am I—but I beg pardon. I forgot myself. Thank God, I

mean, that we are not dead. Are you a Jew? But you must be!
Jacobs is a Jewish name! Well—you alarmed me—that is—you
Jews all look so much alike.'

`Yes, we have a strong national likeness to one another.'

`You have, indeed,' murmured Mr. Powell, breathing freely.
`To tell you the truth, I would have sworn you were Mr. Goldschnapp!'

Duncan smiled; and the money-lender, glancing at him out of
the corner of his eye, said, as if carelessly turning the conversation,

`You have a son here to be proud of, Mr. Powell. I have known
him some time, and have the pleasure of calling him one of my
friends.'

`Indeed. I am very happy to hear so respectable a person speak
in his behalf. He has little merit of it. He has been dissipating;
the graceless fellow!-and I have to-day made a will which I am
going to hold in terrorem over him. Look at it, Mr. Jacobs! Is
it not a rod well pickled, eh?'

`This should be a restraint on any young man's excesses, with
hopes such as are before my young friend Duncan,' said the Jew,
glancing over the parchment. `But you will never be compelled
to carry it into effect, I trust. By the by, I remember hearing my
partner Goldschnapp relate a clever anecdote of the war, and in
which he was concerned.'

Mr. Powell became suddenly red and then pale, and seemed to
wish to avoid hearing the anecdote. But the Jew did not heed him,
while Duncan became intensely interested.

`It seems there was a commissary of the army, who had a large
amount of ammunition, stores, &c., intrusted to him, of great value,
and was on his way with them to the camp at, I forget where,
now, when he was met by Goldschnapp, then a rich Jew of Montreal,
who privately proposed to him, holding out a great bribe, to
send away the escort on some pretence, and let a party of British
troops, not far off, fall upon them, in a place called the `Panther's
Gap,' and cary them off. This offer was made by the British with
a full knowledge that the commissariat in charge was an avaricious
man, and would snap at the proposal. Goldschnapp was sent
with a party to negotiate. The commissary betrayed his trust,
received forty thousand dollars, and the stores and ammunition
were taken. The commanding officer, in charge of the stores with
the commissary, was tried, but acquitted for want of evidence,
while the real rogue escaped. It was a most extraordinary affair,
sir,' added the wily Jew, `and doubtless even now if he should be
betrayed, he would swing for it.'

The eyes of the money-lender during this recital were furtively
watching the countenance of the commissary; as well also was the
surprised Duncan. The expression of his father's face throughout
was one of painful suspense, of fear hovering between hope and
suspicion. His cheek was colorless and his eye restless and averted,
while the hand that held a fruit-knife trembled till the knife vibrated
audibly upon the mahogany board. He seemed, at length,
conscious of betraying feelings it were best to suppress, and making
an effort to speak, said, with a ghastly smile,

`Yes, I dare say he would—would swing, ha, ha! Did you hear
his name?' he asked, in a hoarse voice.

Before replying, the Jew made a signal to the astonished Duncan
to quit the room, who, rising instantly up from the table, made
some excuse to his father.

`No, Duncan, stay! I don't want to be left alone,' said the commissary,
in a painfully pleading tone.

`Mr. Jacobs will remain, sir, with you;' and the next moment
the two old men were left alone together. Mr. Powell looked at
the door as if meditating escape from, he knew not precisely what
dreaded evil, while Jacob, after fixing his eyes steadily upon him
for a moment, apparently enjoying his embarrassment, said,

`I am glad your son has left, before I replied to your question,
Mr. Powell,' said the Jew, in the quiet tone peculiar to him.

`You are? Why, what, what is there that he shouldn't hear as
well as I?' he asked, almost choking.

`That his father was the commissary!'

`Who said this?'

`Jacob Goldschnapp.'

`It is false, sir!' exclaimed Mr. Powell, in a high, angry tone.
`False as the accursed Jew's heart! Jacob Goldschnapp dare not
himself tell me so!'

`He accepts the challenge, Mr. Powell, and here repeats it. You
are the commissary, and I am Jacob Goldschnapp!'

Mr. Powell sprung from his chair, three feet back from the table,
and gazed upon the Jew with a look of despair and terror. In his
imagination the halter was already about his neck, and he was led
forth to suffer at last for the guilt which he had believed time had
forever buried in oblivion.

`I knew it—I suspected him from the first! I—I thought I
recognized the infernal Jew, but I could not believe it was him!'
he said, with a trembling voice, as if soliloquizing.

`Come, Mr. Powell, sit down quietly and let us converse a little,'
said Jacob, coolly.

`Will you betray me?' he asked, with great agitation.

`Sit down. I have a word or two to say to you about your son.
If you listen to reason you need not fear me.'

`I will listen to anything, only do not betray me to the government,'
he said, in a voice of fear, and he resumed his seat opposite
the Jew, eyeing him askance, as if he had been vis-a-vis with a tiger.

`Your son, you are aware, has been here a few months enjoying
himself. If he has been wild it is because you have been a niggard
parent, and young men of large expectations, so brought up,
are sure in the end to prove most troublesome. They can always
obtain money in anticipation of their fortune, and when they get it
will spend it more freely as they have been previously more
restrained.'

Mr. Powell groaned aloud; for he now saw how Duncan had got
the possession of means. The Jew continued:

`My business is money-lending on good securities. I have supplied
your son, for old friendship's sake,' he added, bowing to the
unhappy commissary, `with such means as from time to time he
wanted; for I thought it a pity the son should not enjoy something
of that fortune, the foundation of which the father so easily acquired
through my assistance. I now hold the security he gave me.'

`And what is that? He is a minor. It is of no value, whatever
it be.'

`True; but I look more to you in this case than to him!'

`To me! I have nothing to do with my son's loans and securities.
If you have loaned him money you must lose it. What is the
sum?'

`Six thousand dollars!'

`Impossible! Duncan borrow six thousand dollars! You loan
him that sum!'

`Yes.'

`Then I do not know which to be most astonished at, his extravagance
and audacity, in borrowing and spending such a large sum,
or your folly in advancing it!' thundered Mr. Powell, forgetting
his sins as commissary, in his virtuous horror of the proceedings of
Duncan and the Jew.

`Here is the security your son gave me,' said the money-lender,
quietly taking from a long leather pocket-book Duncan's draft on
his father, and reading it aloud in his astonished ears.

`The scoundrel! Has he the impudence to—'

`You see this is at thirty days' sight,' said the Jew, in his quiet
manner. `You will please accept it now or discount it at one-half
per cent. and give me your check.'

Thus speaking, Jacob Goldschnapp rose from the table and
brought a pen and ink, and placing it within Mr. Powell's reach,
with the draft before him, composedly re-seated himself.

Mr. Powell looked, like one in a dream, first at the pen, then at
the draft, and then at the firm but quiet face of the Jew. At length
he found words.

`What means this, sir? Do you intend to insult me? Do you
expect me to accept that infamous draft of my reprobate son's? I
will disinherit him! Take up your slip of paper, Jew, and deposit
it in your safe,' he added, scornfully; `it may serve in lieu of your
six thousand dollars, to look at!'

Jacob Goldschnapp listened very patiently, and then, reaching
his arm across the table, laid the end of his fore-finger upon the
draft, and said, in a tone of deep significancy, while he fixed upon
the commissary his piercing dark eyes,

`Beasely Powell, this is no time for trifling, nor am I a person
to be trifled with! Write your name across the face of that paper.
Don't let me have to enforce the request.'

`Enforce! How mean you?' articulated faintly the guilty commissary.

`The gallows!' whispered the Jew between his closed lips,
speaking in a low tone, scarcely above his breath. But it reached
the ears of Beasely Powell.

With a face pallid with fear he stretched forth his trembling
hand to the pen and drew the paper towards him. He stopped and
laid down the pen.

`Does my son know this matter?'

`No,'

`Swear never to reveal it to him and I will write you a check at
one-half per cent. Once had he possession of this secret and I
should have no rest. I will accept this for you, Mr. Goldschnapp.
But I trust you will spare me after this! We are both old men,
and it ill becomes us to push one another out of life's path as we
go down hill together,'

`There is the pen!' said Jacob, and, directing his attention to the
draft without heeding his words, waited for him to write.

Mr. Powell again took up the pen, and, with a trembling hand,
wrote his name across the face of the draft and then sank back in
his chair overcome with his feelings. Duncan entered at this
moment, and glancing at the parties, and seeing with astonishment
the draft in Jacob's hands, accepted, with the ink still wet upon it,
he whispered, hurriedly,

`You, I see, alone can save me! I must have fifteen thousand
dollars now he is in the vein! I owe nine thousand already! Do
this for me and I will give you,' added he, smiling, `a check on the
old man for eighteen.'

Thus speaking in a low voice, while his father lay back with his
face in his hands, Duncan crossed to the inner room to await the
issue. Jacob, always alive to his own interests, was not reluctant

to make the effort. He roused the commissary from his depression
and again attacked him, urging upon him to let Duncan have twenty
thousand dollars at once. At length, after great difficulty, and solemnly
pledging himself never again to allude to the subject of the
commissarait, he gave the Jew his check for the sum as reluctantly
as if each dollar had been a drop of his blood, and then, without
bidding Duncan good-bye, and scowling upon the Jew, he left the
room, and that evening took boat for the Highlands.

Jacob paid over seventeen thousand dollars the next day to Duncan,
retaining three thousand as his per centage.

The young man strove to draw from the Jew the secret of his
power over him, yet half-suspecting the truth. But Jacob replied,
as they left the bank together,

`Take the money, Mr. Powell, and be content. What passed
between your father and me, can never pass my lips. I have
solemnly sworn to keep his secret. Now let me advise you to follow
him to Kirkwood. He will not live long, and you will then be
in possession of a handsome estate. Leave the city at once, and
remain at home till his confidence is restored in you.'

This was good advice from one so interested as the Jew in his
remaining in the city and pursoing his former course. But probably
Jacob had come to the conclusion, that no more money could be
got by any farther advances, and having an eye to inveigling Duncan
into a marriage with Ruth, he naturally wished to counsel him
to what was best for the interest of all parties. Duncan promised
he would consider about following his advice, and then left him to
pay up his gambling debts, after which there remained a balance
of eight thousand dollars in his possession.