"
"Upon those conditions I will give your ladyship another hundred."
"Oh, do; you are the veriest miser I ever met with. You are worse
than Shylock, or,--Good gracious! what is this?" exclaimed she,
interrupting herself, and taking up the draft he had laid before her;
"and have you the conscience to think, Mr. Pawnbroker, that I will
offer this at your banker's? that I will expose myself so far? No,
no; take it back, and give me gold. Come, dispatch! else I must
disappoint my party. Look, there is my purse," added she, showing it;
"make haste and fill it."
After satisfying her demands, Mr. Burket handed her ladyship out the
way she came in, which was by a private passage; and having seated
her in her carriage, made his bow.
Meanwhile the Count Sobieski, wrapped in astonishment at the
profligacy which the scene he had witnessed implied, remained in
concealment until the pawnbroker returned, and opened the closet-
door.
"Sir," said he, coloring, "you have, undesignedly on your part, been
privy to a very delicate affair; but my credit, sir, and your honor--"
"Shall both be sacred," replied the count, anxious to relieve the
poor man from his perplexity, and forbearing to express surprise. But
Burket perceived it in his look; and before he proceeded to fulfill
the engagement with him, stepped half way to the escritoire, and
resumed.
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