Part 44 (1/2)
You are at the present time penniless, are you not?”
Frank had hard work to suppress a groan as he bowed his head and thought of how, had he been given time, he could have paid every creditor in full, and had to spare, instead of his poor a.s.sets being more than half swallowed up in costs.
”You came here expecting a stormy interview, did you not?”
”I did!” said Frank.
”To be sure! and now I am going to show you that old Grab-all is not so black a devil as he is painted.”
”Good heavens, sir!” cried Frank joyfully.
”Stop a bit--stop a bit--don't be rash, young man; for perhaps I am not going to favour you in the way you may expect, though I do feel disposed to help you. Now look here: I suppose five hundred pounds would be a great help to you just now?”
”It would start me in life again, sir,” said Frank, sadly; ”but I should not feel justified in commencing upon borrowed capital at high interest.”
”Did I say a word about borrowed capital or high interest?”
”No, sir, but--”
”Yes, yes--of course--I know--old Grind-'em will have sixty per cent, they say, eh? But look here, suppose I were to _give_ you five hundred pounds to start with!”
”Give! give! Give me five hundred pounds in hard cash, sir! Mr Richards, why do you play with my feelings?”
”Play, young man?” said the money-lender quietly. ”I am not playing--I am in earnest. I tell you that I will give you, now, this minute, five hundred pounds. There,” he said, ”give me that cheque book,” and he pointed to a safe in the wall. ”I'll write you one now this instant; and with five hundred pounds you have the key to a fortune. You may die rich as I am, Frank Marr.”
”But you have a condition: you wish to buy something with this five hundred pounds, Mr Richards,” said Frank sternly.
”I only want five minutes of your time,” said the old man.
”What to do?”
”To write half a dozen lines at my dictation.”
”And to whom?”
”To my daughter.”
”Their purport?”
”That you break with her, and set her free, now and for ever.”
”If I do,” cried Frank fiercely, ”may G.o.d in heaven bring down--”
”Stop, stop, you rash, mad fool!” cried the old man excitedly. ”Look here, Frank Marr: you have not a penny; your mother is almost starving; you are living together in a beggarly second-floor room at a tallow-chandler's. You see I know all! You are suffering the poor old lady's murmurs day by day, and she reproaches you for wasting her little all in your business. Look here: be a man, and not a love-sick boy.
I'll be frank with you. Mr Brough has proposed, and I approve of him for a son-in-law. He is elderly, but a better-hearted man does not exist; and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that May has gone to a good home; while you have the chance, and at once, of doing your duty by your old mother. She wants change of air, Frank, and more nourishment. Five hundred pounds clear, Frank, to start with, and on your obtaining one name, one respectable name, beside your own, I'll advance you five hundred more--at five per cent, Frank, my good fellow-- at five per cent.--a thing I never before did in my life. I'll do it at once, this very hour, and you can pay the cheque into a banker's, start a new account, and a prosperous one. There, I'll find you a name--your uncle, Benjamin Marr; I'll take him; he's a respectable man, and good for five hundred pounds. He'll do that for you. Now, my good lad, sit down and accept my offer.”
”Does the devil tempt men still in human form?” gasped Frank, as with veins starting he stood panting for breath before the old man.
”Pooh! nonsense! absurd! Now, how can you talk such silly book-trash, Frank Marr? I thought five years with me as clerk would have made another man of you. You ought never to have left me. Throw all that folly aside, and look the matter in the face like a man. Now you see how calm and how lenient I am. I might play the tyrant, and say that May shall be Mr Brough's wife, and all that sort of thing; but I want to spare everybody's feelings. I don't want any scenes. Come, now: you give her up; you will write to her, eh?”