The miserable woman was exactly in the state of nervous prostration (after the excess of the previous evening) which offered to the clerk his best chance of gaining his end. He presented himself as the representative of friends, bent on helping her, whose modest benevolence had positively forbidden him to mention their names.
"What sum of money must you pay," he asked, "to get rid of the man in possession?"Too completely bewildered to speak, her trembling hand offered to him a slip of paper on which the amount of the debt and the expenses was set forth: L51 12s. 10d.
With some difficulty the Jew preserved his gravity. "Very well,"he resumed. "I will make it up to sixty pounds (to set you going again) on two conditions."She suddenly recovered her power of speech. "Give me the money!"she cried, with greedy impatience of delay.