d in no hurry to
speak.

"What brings you here so late?" asked the baron, leaning on the table
like one prepared for every thing.

"Your honor knows that the bill of exchange for the ten thousand dollars
falls due to me to-morrow."

"Could you not wait till I paid you your full ten per cent. for an
extension of the loan?" asked the baron, contemptuously.

"I am come," said Pinkus, "to explain that I am suddenly in want of
money, and must request you to let me have the principal."

The baron retreated a step. This was the second blow, and it was mortal.
His face turned pale yellow, but he began with a hoarse voice to say,
"How can you make such a demand, after all that has passed between us?
how often have you assured me that this bill of exchange was a mere
form!"

"It has been so hitherto," said Pinkus; "now it comes into force. I have
ten thousand dollars to pay to-morrow to a creditor of mine."

"Make arrangements with him, then," returned the baron; "I am prepared
for a higher rate of interest, but not to pay off the principal."

"Then, baron, I am sorry to tell you that you will be proceeded
against."

The baron silently turned away.

"At what hour may I return to-morrow for my money?" inquired Pinkus.

"At about this hour," replied a voice, weak and hollow as that of an old
man. Pinkus bobbed again and went away.

The baron tottered back to his sitting-room, where he sank down on the
sofa as if paralyzed. Lenore knelt by him, calling him by every tender
name, and imploring him to speak. But he neither saw nor heard, and his
heart and head beat violently. The fair, many-colored bubble that he had
blown had burst now; he knew the fearful truth--he was a ruined man.

They sat till late in the evening, when his daughter persuaded him to
take a glass of wine and to return home. They drove away rapidly. As the
trees along the road-side flew past him, and the fresh air blew in his
face, the baron's spirit revived.

A night and day were still his, and during their course he must needs
find help. This was not his first difficulty, and he hoped it would not
be his last. He had incurred this debt of, originally, seven thousand
dollars odd, because the fellow who now dunned him had brought him the
money some years ago, and entreated, almost forced him to take it at
first at a very low rate of interest. For a few weeks he had let it lie
idle; then he had appropriated it, and step by step his creditor had
incr