‘What do you want, Captin?’ slowly spoke Mr. Levison, with an expression of misery.
‘Oh! I want rather a tolerable sum, and that is the truth; but I only want it for a moment.’
‘It is not the time, ‘tis the money,’ said Mr. Levison. ‘You know me and my pardner, Captin, are always anxious to do what we can to sarve you.’
‘Well, now you can do me a real service, and, by Jove, you shall never repent it. To the point; I must have 1,500L.’
‘One thousand five hundred pounds!’ exclaimed Mr. Levison. ‘’Tayn’t in the country.’
‘Humbug! It must be found. What is the use of all this stuff with me? I want 1,500L., and you must give it me.’
‘I tell you what it is, Captin,’ said Mr. Levison, leaning over the back of a chair, and speaking with callous composure; ‘I tell you what it is, me and my pardner are very willing always to assist you; but we want to know when the marriage is to come off, and that’s the truth.’
‘Damn the marriage,’ said Captain Armine, rather staggered.
‘There it is, though,’ said Mr. Levison, very quietly. ‘You know, Captin, there is the arrears on that ‘ere annuity, three years next Michaelmas. I think it’s Michaelmas; let me see.’ So saying, Mr. Levison opened an escritoire, and brought forward an awful-looking volume, and, consulting the terrible index, turned to the fatal name of Armine. ‘Yes! three years next Michaelmas, Captin.’
‘Well, you will be paid,’ said Ferdinand.