"Right; it is Wednesday; and the date, Master Fink, the date is that on which you are to repay me my three thousand florins."
"Ah," I cried, "it is true, it is true! How could it have escaped me?"
"That is not my affair. This is my lawyer, Master Fink!"
I bowed to the lawyer, and said to Pretzel,
"You will renew the bond, will you not? You will let the money remain with me for another two years, at the same rate of interest?"
"What!" be cried; "are you mad, or do you think I am?"
"No," I said, in a rueful tone, "I am not mad, but you see the state I am in. Unfortunate--unfortunate that I am!"
"That is always the way," he said, appealing to his lawyer--" that is always the way." Then to me, "Is not my demand just?"
"Quite just; but you will continue to be my friend--you will not ruin me!"
He laughed in my face. "Master Fink," he said, "attend, to me. Years before I lent you this money you were in the habit of reviling me and speaking against me. You libelled and scandalized me; you held me up in the blackest light. You were never tired of calling me a villainous old usurer."