"Stop, sir," cried the Jew, pursuing him, "what will you take for
it?"
"What would you give me?"
"Let me see. It is very long and wide. At the utmost I cannot offer
you more than five guineas."
A few months ago, it had cost the count a hundred; but glad to get
any money, however small, he readily closed with the man's price; and
taking off the cloak, gave it to him, and put the guineas into his
pocket.
He had not walked much further before the piercing cold of the
evening, and a shower of snow, which began to fall, made him feel the
effects of his loss; however, that did not annoy him; he had been too
heavily assailed by the pitiless rigors of misfortune to regard the
pelting of the elements. Whilst the wind blew in his face, and the
sleet falling on his dress, lodged in its lappels, he went forward,
calculating whether it were likely that this money, with the few
shillings he yet possessed, would be sufficient to discharge what he
owed. Unused as he had been to all kinds of expenditure which
required attention, he supposed, from what he had already seen of a
commerce with the world, that the sum he had received from the Jew
was not above half what he needed; and with a beating heart he walked
towards one of those shops which Mrs. Robson had described, when
speaking of the irregularities of her son, who had nearly reduced her
to beggary.
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