I wrote him twice as his interest
'ud be all right when I come back."
"Yes, I know. But you didn't give any address. And he wanted his money
back. So he came to me."
"Wanted his money back!" cried Silas, splashing about in the hidden tub
and grimacing. "He had but just lent it me."
"Yes, but Tomkinson, his landlord, died, and he had the chance of buying
his premises from the executors. And so he wanted his money back."
"And what didst tell him, lad?"
"I told him I would take a transfer of the mort-gage."
"Thou! Hadst gotten four hundred pounds i' thy pocket, then?"
"Yes. And so I took a transfer."
"Bless us! This comes o'going away! But where didst find th' money?"
"And what's more," Herbert continued, evading the question, "as I
couldn't get my interest I gave you notice to repay, uncle, and as you
didn't repay--"
"Give me notice to repay! What the dev--? You hadna' got my address."
"I had your legal address--this house, and I left the notice for you in
the parlour. And as you didn't repay I--I took possession as mortgagee,
and now I'm--I'm foreclosing."
"Thou'rt foreclosing!"
Silas stood up in the tub, staggered, furious, sweating.
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