"Look you, sir, I am poor and ambitious; you have tempted me at the right
moment, and with the right inducement. I succumb. But what guarantee
have I that this money will be paid, these estates made mine upon the
conditions stipulated?"

"Before anything is settled," replied the baron, "go and ask my character
of any of our young friends, Borrowell, Spendquick--whom you please; you
will hear me abused, of course; but they will all say this of me, that
when I pass my word, I keep it. If I say, '/Mon cher/, you shall have
the money,' a man has it; if I say, 'I renew your bill for six months,'
it is renewed. 'T, is my way of doing business. In all cases any word
is my bond. In this case, where no writing can pass between us, my only
bond must be my word. Go, then, make your mind clear as to your
security, and come here and dine at eight. We will call on Peschiera
afterwards."

"Yes," said Randal, "I will at all events take the day to consider.
Meanwhile, I say this, I do not disguise from myself the nature of the
proposed transaction, but what I have once resolved I go through with.
My sole vindication to myself is, that if I play here with a false die,
it will be for a stake so grand, as once won, the magnitude of the prize
will cancel the ignominy of the play. It is not this sum of money for
which I sell myself,--it is for what that sum will aid me to achieve.
And in the marriage of young Hazeldean with the Italian woman, I have
another, and it may be a larger interest. I have slept on it lately,--
I wake to it now. Insure that marriage, obtain the post-obit. from
Hazeldean, and whatever the issue of the more direct scheme for which you
seek my services, rely on my gratitude, and believe that you will have
put me in the way to render gratitude of avail. At eight I will be with