"Then why did you take my money seven months ago?"
"Why did I take the money? why did I take it? Because you yourself proposed the transaction. You said, 'Bring me the acceptance of Lord Tremordyn for fifteen hundred pounds, and I will lend you a thousand upon it immediately.'"
"I don't recollect."
"And you said emphatically and distinctly that you should not call upon Lord Tremordyn to inquire if it were his acceptance."
"Of course not. Amongst gentlemen such a proceeding would be unpardonable."
"Oh! Greenwood, you affect ignorance in all this! and yet it was you who put the infernal idea into my head—"
"Sir Rupert Harborough," said the capitalist, rising from his chair; "enough of this! I put no infernal ideas into any one's head. Settle the bill in the way I propose; or it shall take its course."
"But—my God! you will send me to the Old Bailey!" cried the baronet, whose countenance was actually livid with rage and alarm.
"And did you not send Richard Markham thither?" said Greenwood, fixing his piercing dark eyes upon Sir Rupert Harborough in so strange a manner that the unhappy man shrank from that fearful glance.