"No, you're not; so don't be a humbug!" said the Viscount. "I'm not very sharp, I know; but I'm keen enough to see through that. You've milked me pretty well, and worked me nicely with all your professional cant. I don't recollect how much I've had in cash--I did put it down on old envelopes, but they're lost--but I know that those pictures and the wines were horrible stuff; and one way and another you've made those bills grow till now they amount to--" "Four thou--" "There--there, that'll do; I can't pay it, so what's the good of bothering one about how much it is? I've got it down somewhere, I tell you, and perhaps I can find it when I want to know, and I don't now. Well, as I was going to say, you've made the bills grow to that size, now make them grow a little bigger." His lordship yawned, stretched himself, and then poured some pale brandy into a coffee-cup, before filling it with the rich fluid in the biggin. "Totally impossible, my lord," said the money-lender, rising. "I'm very sorry, my lord, but I must set the law to work. I have, as you well know, always been most desirous of aiding you during pressing necessities; and when unable to help you myself, I have always introduced you to some one who would. But, to speak plainly, this trip of yours to Italy, without a word to me first--" "Why, confound it all! was I to come and ask you if I might go abroad?" exclaimed his lordship, furiously. "Oh, dear me, no! Of course not, my lord; but as I was saying, this trip to Italy looks so much like trying to bilk me, that I must, for my own sake--" "And that of the gentleman in the City," sneered his lordship. "No, my lord, I don't do business with men in the City," said the Jew, in injured tones; "and for my own sake alone I must take strenuous measures for the recovery of the debt." "'Tisn't a debt: it's only a money-lending affair," growled his lordship. "Well--well, we won't argue upon that point, my lord. The Sheriff of Middlesex has his ideas upon these matters--ideas in which I have implicit confidence." "Here, Braham; I say; come, no nonsense. Don't be a fool, you know. Don't be hard on a fellow because he's bilious and put out!" exclaimed his lordship, who, with the immediate prospect of a sponging-house before him, displayed an unwonted degree of perturbation. "But, I say, you can't--you know you can't do any thing yet;" and his lordship's face brightened. The Jew laughed. "Your lordship forgets. Hyman has a little affair out against you, which will just work in well with mine. I shouldn't be surprised if some one is already waiting for you!" "Oh! come, I say--you know; I can't stand this. You mustn't do anything, Braham; and you must stop Hyman, because I've come home--come over--come on purpose--that is, I have something good on my book." The money-lender watched him narrowly. "Have indeed--matter of great importance--case of thousands, in fact-- clear me of all my little unpleasantries."