And this is the time that
the old gentleman chooses to ask for another four thousand. He may
ask, but the answer will be more than he bargains for."
He rose from the chair and began to walk up and down the room in
evident perplexity. "If only," he said, "I had twenty-five thousand, I
would take up the mortgages myself and foreclose at my leisure. It
would be a good investment at that figure, even as things are, and
besides, I should like to have that place. Twenty-five thousand, only
twenty-five thousand, and now when I want it I have not got it. And I
should have had it if it had not been for that tiger, that devil
Edith. She has had more than that out of me in the last ten years, and
still she is threatening and crying for more, more, more. Tiger; yes,
that is the name for her, her own name, too. She would coin one's
vitals into money if she could. All Belle's fortune she has had, or
nearly all, and now she wants another five hundred, and she will have
it too.
"Here we are," and he drew a letter from his pocket written in a bold,
but somewhat uneducated, woman's hand.
"Dear Bill," it ran, "I've been unlucky again and dropped a pot. Shall
want 500 pounds by the 1st October. No shuffling, mind; money down;
but I think that you know me too well to play any more larx.
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