very different from what is usual with him. It is plain he has not yet
recovered from the effects of the crushing blow he received at the
jousts.

Opposite him sits his partner, Sir Francis Mitchell; and the silence
that has reigned between them for some minutes is first broken by the
old usurer.

"Well, Sir Giles," he inquires, "are you satisfied with your
examination of these deeds of the Mounchensey property? The estates have
been in the family, as you see, for upwards of two centuries--ever since
the reign of Henry IV., in fact--and you have a clear and undisputed
title to all the property depicted on that plan--to an old hall with a
large park around it, eight miles in circumference, and almost as well
stocked with deer as the royal chase of Theobald's; and you have a title
to other territorial domains extending from Mounchensey Place and Park
to the coast, a matter of twelve miles as the crow flies, Sir
Giles,--and including three manors and a score of little villages. Will
not these content you? Methinks they should. I' faith, my worthy
partner, when I come to reckon up all your possessions, your houses and
lands, and your different sources of revenue--the sums owing to you in
bond and mortgage--your monopolies and your patents--when I reckon up
all these, I say, and add thereunto the wealth hoarded in this cabinet,
which you have not placed out at usance--I do not hesitate to set you
down as one of the richest of my acquaintance. There be few whose
revenue is so large as yours, Sir Giles. 'Tis strange, though I have had
the same chance as yourself of making money, I have not a hundredth part
of your wealth."

"Not a whit strange," replied Sir Giles, laying down the deed and
regarding his partner somewhat contemptuously. "I waste not what I
acquire. I have passions as well as yourself, Sir Francis; but I keep
them under subjection. I drink not--I riot not--I shun all idle company.
I care not for outward show, or for the vanities of dress. I have only
one passion which I indulge,--Revenge. You are a slave to sensuality,
and pamper your lusts at any cost. Let a fair woman please your eye, and
she must be bought, be the price what it may. No court prodigal was ever
more licentious or extravagant than you are."

"Sir Giles! Sir Giles! I pray you, spare me. My enemies could not report
worse of me."

"Nay, your enemies would say that your extravagance is your sole merit,
and that therein you are better than I,"