'I—I——' hesitated Mr. Pettican. 'You see how I am circumstanced, my wife——'
'You lent her the money. Mistress Sharland told me so.'
'She did!' exclaimed Pettican in surprise.
'Yes, she did. Now I want to know, will you do that again? I am landlord. I bought the Ray for eight hundred pounds, and I don't want to drop my money without a return. You understand that. A man doesn't want to give his gold away, and be whined out of getting interest for it by an old shivering, chattering woman, and flouted out of it by a devil of a girl.' His hands clenched fiercely.
'Of course, of course,' said the cripple. 'I understand you. You think those two can't manage the farm, and were better out of it.'
'I want to be sure of my money,' said Elijah, knitting his dark brows, and fixing his eyes intently on Pettican.
'I quite understand,' said the latter, and tapping his forehead, he added, 'I am a man of business still. I am not so old as all that, whatever Admonition may say.'
'Now what I want to know,' pursued Elijah, 'is this—for how long are you going to pay your cousin's rent? For how long is that Glory to come to me and defy me, and throw the money down before me?'
'I don't quite take you,' said Pettican.
'How many times will you pay their rent?' asked Rebow.