Baroness Orczy

“ He seemed altogether aged, though his hair was no greyer, nor his stature less upright, but his geniality seemed gone; there was an air of seriousness, of care round the eyes, and one or two deep lines were very apparent between the brows. ”

“ We can both only pray, my lord, that I shall be able to buy them at a reasonable figure. I am not made of money,” added András, smiling, “as your Honour has often said; thank God, however, I have enough yet to let you be in my debt, with regard to the house instead of in the Jew’s, and I can assure your lordship, that I will never be hard upon you, in the matter of the interest.”
Bideskúty seemed hardly to realize the enormous service which the young peasant, was thus quietly offering to render him. ”

“ I can of course get the other papers out of the hands of that cursed Jew, those I mean, which deal with loans, I actually did make.”
“What will you do with them?” asked Bideskúty, still suspiciously.
“Destroy them,” replied András simply. “Unfortunately it is not in my power to force Rosenstein to give you back all that he has extorted from you. I can. thrash him to within an inch of his life,” he added, “but that would do no good.”
“All that is not the worst,” said Bideskúty with a sigh, “what is gone is gone. I can pay neither interest nor principal of that last loan ”

“ András waited till Bideskúty had composed himself, and after a while, he said:
“Have I your lordship’s permission to see Rosenstein to-morrow?”
“Yes! ... Yes!” said Bideskúty hurriedly, “I am grateful to you, friend ... yes, very grateful, ... and ... you need not fear ... I will repay you all soon ... very soon ... you are placing your money on good security. ... Next year my mill will be at work ...”
“We can easily talk of that later on,” said András, gently, “if your lordship will allow me, now I will go ”