"
"That's all off."
"Then I don't think you can blame the duke for looking for his own.
It does not suit him to have so large a sum standing out any longer.
You see, he wants land, and will have it. Had you paid off what you
owed him, he would have purchased the Crown property; and now, it
seems young Gresham has bid against him, and is to have it. This has
riled him, and I may as well tell you fairly, that he is determined
to have either money or marbles."
"You mean that I am to be dispossessed."
"Well, yes; if you choose to call it so. My instructions are to
foreclose at once."
"Then I must say the duke is treating me most uncommonly ill."
"Well, Sowerby, I can't see it."
"I can, though. He has his money like clock-work; and he has bought
up these debts from persons who would have never disturbed me as long
as they got their interest."
"Haven't you had the seat?"
"The seat! and is it expected that I am to pay for that?"
"I don't see that any one is asking you to pay for it. You are like
a great many other people that I know. You want to eat your cake and
have it. You have been eating it for the last twenty years, and now
you think yourself very ill-used because the duke wants to have his
turn."
"I shall think myself very ill-used if he sells me out--worse than
ill-used.
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