OSSEP [_standing_]. My God! what do I see and hear? You are a merchant and tread your word under foot. Shame on you! [_Takes him by the arm and leads him to the mirror_.] Look! look at your face! Why do you turn pale? BARSSEGH. Let me go! OSSEP [_holding him fast by the sleeve_]. How can you be so unscrupulous? Look! How pale your lips are! BARSSEGH. Let me go! [_Freeing himself_.] You act exactly as though you were the creditor. OSSEP. No, you are the creditor. I would rather be swallowed up alive by the earth than be such a creditor as you are. What do you think you will be in my eyes after this? BARSSEGH. I tell you, hand out my money or I will lay your note before the court immediately! I would only like to know where you are going to get the dowry for your daughter. You will pay over my money to your son-in-law, will you, and give me the go-by? OSSEP. Give yourself no trouble! Even if you should beg me now, I would not keep your money. To-morrow at this time you shall have it, and then may the faces turn black of those who still look at you. BARSSEGH. I want it at once. OSSEP. Then come with me. You shall have it. The sooner a man is rid of a bad thing, the better it is. Give me the note! No, don't give it to me, for you don't trust me. You are not worthy of trusting me. Take it yourself and come with me. We will go at once to the bazaar, sell it, then you can have your money. I may lose something by it. It makes no difference. It is easier to bear this misfortune than to talk to you. Do you hear? Shall we go? BARSSEGH. What do you mean? OSSEP. Get the note, I tell you! Don't you hear? BARSSEGH. What kind of a note? OSSEP. Rostom's note. BARSSEGH. Rostom's' note? What is this note to you? OSSEP. What is it to me? It is no word, indeed, that you can deny. It is a document. BARSSEGH. What is it to you that I have this document in my hands? That is mine and Rostom's business. OSSEP. Yours and Rostom's business! [_Pauses_.] It is, I see, not yet enough that you lie. You are a thief and a robber beside. What people say of you is really true; namely, that you have robbed everybody, and by this means have acquired your wealth. Yes, it is true that you have ruined twenty-five families; that you have put out their candle and lighted yours by it. Now I see, for the first time, that everything that people say about you is true. Now I believe, indeed, that these chairs, this sofa, this mirror, your coat, your cane--in a word, every article that you call yours--represents some person you have robbed. Take my bones and add to them. Make the measure full. You have made your conscience a stone and will hear nothing; but I tell you, one day it will awake, and every object that lies or stands here will begin to speak and hold up to you your villanies. Then you can go and justify yourself before your Maker. Shame upon him who still calls you a human being! [_Exit by the middle door_. BARSSEGH. Ha! ha! ha! [_Exit at the right_. CURTAIN.