er to profit by his lordship's
intention, unless I had enabled him to pursue his good fortune."

Renaldo was not a little pleased to hear this harangue, to which Fathom
replied with many florid encomiums upon the usurer's good sense and
humane disposition; then he explained the errand of his friend, which was
to borrow three hundred pounds, in order to retrieve his inheritance, of
which he had been defrauded in his absence.

"Sir," said the lender, addressing himself to Count Melvil, "I pretend to
have acquired by experience some skill in physiognomy; and though there
are some faces so deeply disguised as to baffle all the penetration of
our art, there are others, in which the heart appears with such nakedness
of integrity, as at once to recommend it to our goodwill. I own your
countenance prepossesses me in your favour; and you shall be
accommodated, upon those terms from which I never deviate, provided you
can find proper security, that you shall not quit the British dominions;
for that, with me, is a condition sine qua non."

This was a very disagreeable declaration to Renaldo, who candidly owned,
that, as his concerns lay upon the Continent, his purpose was to leave
England without delay. The usurer professed himself sorry that it was
not in his power to oblige him; and, in order to prevent any further
importunity, assured them, he had laid it down as a maxim, from which he
would never swerve, to avoid all dealings with people whom, if need
should be, he could not sue by the laws of this realm.

Thus the intervention of one unlucky and unforeseen circumstance blasted
in an instant the budding hopes of Melvil, who, while his visage
exhibited the most sorrowful disappointment, begged to know, if there was
any person of his acquaintance who might be less scrupulous in that
particular.

The young gentleman directed them to another member of his profession,
and wishing them success, took his leave with great form and
complaisance. This instance of politeness was, however, no more than a
shift to disengage himself the more easily from their entreaties; for,
when the case was opened to the second usurer, he blessed himself from
such customers, and dismissed them with the most mortifying and boorish
refusal. Notwithstanding these repulses, Renaldo resolved to make one
desperate push; and, without allowing himself the least respite,
solicited, one by one, not fewer than fifteen persons who dealt in this
kind of traf