"Of my father; but the bill was sold some time since," said Rehoboam. "Nevens, a broker on the floor below, was the purchaser. It was he who sent you the message, no doubt; and it's with him you'll have to deal."
The girl was moving toward the door; Anthony opened it for her, and went with her out into the passage.
"It is some distance to your lodging-place," he said. "Must you return alone?"
"My maid is awaiting me below," she said.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not," she said in a troubled voice. "It's a matter of my father's—money borrowed at a time when it was much needed. They have begun to press him for it; he's greatly distressed, for he had been given to understand that he had his own time to pay it in."
Anthony frowned.
"That has not the sound of a usurer's articles," said he.
He watched her down-stairs, then reëntered Bulfinch's counting-room. Nathaniel was speaking, addressing Weir, and his voice was pitched high in complaint.
"The sum she speaks of was gotten from our father, a man so old that he was in his dotage, and who must needs pay out moneys on undated paper. And a round sum, too, in Dutch pieces, and the bill with never a name of any substance on it."