Mowbray. We were both horribly to blame; but though I was full as wrong in
action, I flatter myself that I was wrong upon better or upon less bad
motives. My aversion to the Jew, if more absurd and violent, was less
interested and malignant than Mowbray's. I never could stand as he did to
parley, and barter, and chaffer with him--if I had occasion to buy any
thing, I was high and haughty, and at a word; he named his price, I
questioned not, not I--down was thrown my money, my back was turned--and
away! As for stooping to coax him as Mowbray would, when he had a point to
gain, I could not have done it. To ask Jacob to lend me money, to beg him
to give me more time to pay a debt, to cajole and bully him by turns, to
call him alternately usurer and _my honest fellow_, extortioner and _my
friend Jacob_--my tongue could not have uttered the words, my soul detested
the thought; yet all this, and more, could Mowbray do, and did.

Lord Mowbray was deeply in Jacob's debt, especially for two watches which
he had taken upon trial, and which he had kept three months, making, every
Thursday, some fresh excuse for not paying for them; at last Jacob said
that he must have the money, that his employer could wait no longer, and
that he should himself be thrown into prison. Mowbray said this was only a
trick to work upon his compassion, and that the Jew might very well wait
for his money, because he asked twice as much for the watches as they were
worth. Jacob offered to leave the price to be named by any creditable
watchmaker. Lord Mowbray swore that he was as good a judge as any
watchmaker in Christendom. Without pretending to dispute that point, Jacob
finished by declaring, that his distress was so urgent that he must appeal
to some of the masters. "You little Jewish tell-tale, what do you mean by
that pitiful threat? Appeal to the higher powers if you dare, and I'll make
you repent it, you usurer! Only do, if you dare!" cried he, clenching his
hand and opening it, so as to present, successively, the two ideas of a box
on the ear, and a blow on the stomach. "That was logic and eloquence,"