ersuade Pinkus to
leave you the ten thousand, and will add another ten if you make over
that mortgage to my friend."

The baron listened. "Perhaps you do not know," rejoined he, with much
severity, "that I have already made over that deed of mortgage to
Ehrenthal."

"Forgive me, gracious sir, you have not; there has been no legal
surrender of it made."

"But my written promise has been given," said the baron.

Veitel shrugged again. "If you promised Ehrenthal a mortgage, why should
it be this very one of all others? But what need of a mortgage to
Ehrenthal at all? This year you will receive your capital from the
Polish estate, and then you can pay him off in hard cash. Till then,
just leave the mortgage quietly in his hands; no one need know that you
have surrendered it to us. If you will have the kindness to come with me
to a lawyer, and assign the deed to my friend, I will give you two
thousand dollars for it at once, and on the day that you place the deed
in our hands I will pay down the rest of the money."

The baron had forced himself to listen to this proposal with a smile. At
last he replied briefly, "Devise some other plan; I can not consent to
this."

"There is no other," said Itzig; "but it is only midday, and I can wait
till five."

He again began a series of low bows, and moved to the door.

"Reflect, gracious sir," said he, earnestly, "that you do not merely
want the ten thousand dollars. You will, in the course of the next few
months, require as much more for your factory and the getting your money
out of the Polish investment. If you surrender the mortgage to us, you
will have the whole sum you need; but pray do not mention the matter to
Ehrenthal: he is a hard man, and would injure me throughout life."

"Have no fear," said the baron, with a gesture of dismissal.

Veitel withdrew.

The baron paced up and down. The proposal just made revolted him. True,
it would rescue him from this and other impending difficulties, but, of
course, it was out of the question. The man who proposed it was so
absurd a being, that it was of no use even to be angry with him. But the
baron's word was pledged, and the matter could not be thought of
further.

And yet how trifling the risk! The documents would remain at Ehrenthal's
till the Polish count had paid him, then he would clear his own debts to
Ehrenthal, and release his documents. No one need ever know of it; and
if the worst should befall, he had but to