Domestic fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Hertfordshire (England) -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
"Take it, get it; go and put it in your pocket. You have a lot of
writings; turn then into cash at once. Take them to any other Jew in
London and sell them. See if you can get your five-and-twenty thousand
pounds for them,--or twenty-five thousand shillings. You certainly
cannot get five-and-twenty pence for them here, though you had all the
police of this royal kingdom to support you. My father says that the
bonds I gave you are not worth the paper on which they were written. If
you are cheated, so have I been. If he has robbed you, so has he me. But
I have not robbed you, and you can do nothing to me."
"I vill stick to you like beesvax," said Mr. Hart, while the look of
good-humor left his countenance for a moment. "Like beesvax! You shall
not escape me again."
"You will have to follow me to Constantinople, then."
"I vill follow you to the devil."
"You are likely to go before me there. But for the present I am off to
Constantinople, from whence I intend to make an extended tour to Mount
Caucasus, and then into Thibet. I shall be very glad of your company,
but cannot offer to pay the bill. When you and your companions have
settled yourselves comfortably at Tretton, I shall be happy to come and
see you there. You will have to settle the matter first with my younger
brother, if I may make bold to call that well-born gentleman my brother
at all. I wish you a good-morning, Mr. Hart." Upon that he walked out
into the hall, and thence down the steps into the garden in front of the
establishment, his own attendant following him.
Mr. Hart also followed him, but did not immediately seek to renew the
conversation. If he meant to show any sign of keeping his threat and of
sticking to the captain like beeswax, he must show his purpose at once.
The captain for a time walked round the little enclosure in earnest
conversation with the attendant, and Mr. Hart stood on the steps
watching them. Play was over, at any rate for that day, as far as the
captain was concerned.
"Now, Captain Scarborough, don't you think you've been very rash?" said
the attendant.
"I think I've got six hundred and fifty napoleons in my pocket, instead
of waiting to get them in driblets from my brother."
"But if he knew that you had come here he would withdraw them
altogether. Of course, he will know now. That man will be sure to tell
him. He will let all London know. Of course, it would be so when you
came to a place of such common resort as Monte Carlo."
"Common resort! Do you believe he came here as to a place of common
resort? Do you think that he had not tracked me out, and would not have
done so, whether I had gone to Melbourne, or New York, or St.
Petersburg? But the wonder is that he should spend his money in such a
vain pursuit."
"Ah, captain, you do not know what is vain and what is not. It is your
brother's pleasure that you should be kept in the dark for a time."
"Hang my brother's pleasure! Why am I to follow my brother's pleasure?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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