CHAPTER XXXIV.
BRIGHT DEATH.
“My name, noble lady, is Ephraim; and I have a large debt secured on the property of the late Lady Agnes, which I understand has now passed into your hands; and I am come, therefore, to claim it from you, for otherwise I am a ruined man!”
“How is that possible?” asked Fabiola in amazement. “I cannot believe that my cousin ever contracted debts.”
“No, not she,” rejoined the usurer, a little abashed; “but a gentleman called Fulvius, to whom the property was to come by confiscation; so I advanced him large sums upon it.”
Her first impulse was to turn the man out of the house; but the thought of the sister came to her mind, and she civilly said to him:
“Whatever debts Fulvius has contracted I will discharge; but with only legal interest, and without regard to usurious contracts.”
“But think of the risks I ran, madam. I have been most moderate in my rates, I assure you.”
“Well,” she answered, “call on my steward, and he shall settle all. You are running no risks now at least.”
She gave instructions, accordingly, to the freed-man who managed her affairs, to pay this sum on those conditions, which reduced it to one half the demand. But she soon engaged him in a more laborious task, that of going through the whole of her late father’s accounts, and ascertaining every case of injury or oppression, that restitution might be made. And further, having ascertained that Corvinus had really obtained the imperial rescript, through his father, by which her own lawful property was saved from confiscation, though she refused ever to see him, she bestowed upon him such a remuneration as would ensure him comfort through life.