Part 46 (2/2)
Itzig stepped back, and gazed at him horrified.
”If I cannot pay,” continued Gotzkowsky, impressively; ”if I am unable to pay half a million for Leipsic, another half million for the Russian claims, after having lost the same amount yesterday by the new treasury ordinance--what would you say to that, Itzig?”
Itzig listened to him with increasing terror, and gradually his features a.s.sumed an expression of hatred and savage rage. When Gotzkowsky had finished, he raised his clasped hands to heaven, as if imploring the wrath of G.o.d on the head of the sinner. ”My G.o.d! sir, are you, then, going to fail?”
Gotzkowsky seized his hand, and looked into his quivering face with an expression of intense anxiety. ”Listen to me, Itzig. I may yet be saved; every thing depends upon my obtaining a delay, that my credit may not be shaken. You are rich--”
”No, I am poor,” interrupted Itzig, vehemently. ”I am perfectly poor; I have nothing but what I earn.”
”But you can earn a great deal,” said Gotzkowsky, with a faint smile.
”I wish to effect a loan from you. Take my word of honor as security.”
”Your word of honor!” cried Itzig, thrusting back his hand. ”What can I do with your word of honor? I cannot advance any money on it.”
”Consider! the honor of my name is concerned--and this, till now, I have kept unsullied before G.o.d and man!” cried Gotzkowsky, imploringly.
”And if my own honor was concerned,” exclaimed Itzig, ”I would rather part with it than my money. Money makes me a man. I am a Jew. I have nothing but money--it is my life, my honor! I cannot part with any of it.”
But Gotzkowsky did not allow himself to be repulsed. It seemed to him that his future, his honor, his whole life hung upon this moment. He felt like a gambler who has staked his last hope upon one throw of the dice. If this fails, all hope is gone; no future, no life is left, nothing but the grave awaits him. With impetuous violence he seized the hand of the rich Itzig. ”Oh!” said he, ”remember the time when you swore eternal grat.i.tude to me.”
”I never would have sworn it,” cried Itzig--”no, by the Eternal, I never would have done it, if I had thought you would ever have needed it!”
”The honor of my name is at stake!” cried Gotzkowsky, in a tone of heart-rending agony. ”Do you not understand that this is to me my life? Remember your vow! Let your heart for once feel sympathy--act as a man toward his fellow-man. Advance me money upon my word of honor.
No, not on that alone--on my house, on all that belongs to me. Lend me the sum I need. Oh! I will repay it in a princely manner. Help me over only these shoals, and my grat.i.tude to you will be without bounds. You have a heart--take pity on me!”
Itzig looked with a malicious smile into his pale, agitated face.
”So the rich, the great Christian banker, in the hour of his trouble, thinks that the poor derided Jew has a heart; I admit that I have a heart--but what has that to do with money? When business begins, there the heart stops. No, I have no heart to lend you money!”
Gotzkowsky did not answer immediately. He stood for an instant motionless, as if paralyzed in his inmost being. His soul was crushed, and he scarcely felt his grief. He only felt and knew that he was a lost man, and that the proud edifice of his fortune was crumbling under him, and would bury him in its ruins. He folded his hands and raised his disconsolate looks on high; he murmured: You see my suffering, O G.o.d! I have done my utmost! I have humbled myself to begging--to pitiful complaining. My G.o.d! my G.o.d! will no helping hand stretch itself once more to me out of the cloud?”
”You should have prayed before to G.o.d,” said Itzig, with cruel mockery. ”You should have begged Him for prudence and foresight.”
Gotzkowsky did not heed him. He fought and struggled with his immense suffering, and, being a n.o.ble and a brave man, he at length conquered it. For a moment he had been cowed and downcast, but now he recovered all the power of his energetic nature. He raised again his bowed head, and his look was once more determined and defiant. ”Well, then, I have tried every thing; now I accept my fate. Listen, then, Herr Itzig, I am going to suspend payment; my house must fail!”
Itzig shuddered with a sudden terror. ”My G.o.d!” cried he, ”only yesterday I bought a draft of yours. You will not pay it?”
”I will not do it, because I cannot; and I would not do it, if I could. I have humbled myself before you in the dust, and you have stretched out no hand to raise me. Farewell, and may that now happen which you would not prevent when you could! You punish yourself.
Farewell!”
Itzig held him convulsively back, and cried, in a voice drowned by rage, ”You will pay my draft?”
”I will not,” said Gotzkowsky. ”You have judged; take now your reward.” He threw Itzig's hands from him, and hastened from the spot.
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