Y >43 EX "PAYABLE ON DEMAND" AX ORIGINAL DOMESTIC DRAMA TWO ACTS BY TOM TAYLOR, ESQ. ATJTHOH OF The House or the Home f The Contested Election; An Unequ* JJatch; Victims; Still Waters Run Deep; Going to the Bad; Firm; A Blighted Being; A Trip to Kissengen; is Lantern ; The Philosopher's Stone ; The Vicar of WaReJMd; To Parents and Guardians ; Our Clerks ; Little Red Riding Hood; Helping Hands, Prince Dorus, $c., $c., $c. And one of the Authors of Masks and Faces ; Passion ; Slave Life ; Two Loves and a Life; The King's Rival; Retribution, THOMAS H A I L E S L A, C Y, 89, STRAND, f Opposite Scutltampton Street, Covent Gwrt.m Marktt.) LONDON. Payable on Demand. H eft CO W P s w^v ^^ h"^ ^ C ^^^ ^"^ r^ ^ 1. 1 go<3 tn +? v> *4 % to_. "^3 >> lgS"o^^-g--^ Jonadab Bcu Manassell Liua Goldsched ISSi S>-=a S It*i f^sa i'^ 2 iii| 5 -a 4 38SSgg^.>^ 8^. feS os-g-^ Soc:M'o|oS> Hfltllilll* ll58iii|||11 8H5tnto5;i-9 C f I^TS^ ,5^a s^^>,3 2098005 ACT FIRST. SCENE. A poor room in the house of Reuben Gold- sched, in the Jew's quarter at Frankfort. A low browed Gothic window, and door in c. an old fashioned Press, with glazed shelves and drawers below. A work bench, with a Lapidary's wheel, L. a few old fashioned chairs, a lamp of brass hung by a chain, R., an old fashioned stove, E. near it, shelves with Jars, jugs, and other common kitchen utensils near the stove an arm chair and a cradle beside it a practicable staircase leading to upper rooms, near the stove a door, L., communicating with an inner room. Enter JONADAB, D. in F., a sealed packet in his hand. JONADAB. Reuben not at his wheel! There was a time, nine o'clock would have been sure to find hiqi cutting diamonds, but now the diamonds have cut him, - poor fellow . Here's the money for that buckle of brilliants I sold for him. (taking out purse] I wonder how he came by it ? He said he was selling it for a friend but we all know what that means ! And here's a packet from the post office, for " The Citizen Bon Enfant" (reading direction') " Care of Reuben Goldsched, in the Jews quarter, Frankfort." 1 wonder what's inside ? (weighing it in his hand} But I can't stay here all the morning, and our French brethren just about to enter the town I shall lose the show here, Reuben ! Reuben Goldsched ! Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. REUBEN. Hush, Jonadab ! Hush ! you'll waken the child, (goes hastily over to the cradle, K.) No ! she sleeps sound, little darling ! More than her father and mother can, Jonadab. JONADAB. Why our Rabbi says the poor sleep soundest Reuben. REUBEN. Does he? Let him try his own opiate. I tell you an empty purse makes a sleepless pillow. JONADAB. Well, well, Reuben, here's something to help to-night's nap. (gives him purse] REUBEN. The money for the buckle! How much? how much ? (counts the money eagerly J Fifteen thaler ! By the Mishna I swear it was worth thirty. JONADAB. You told me I needn't haggle the article wasn't your own, you said. REUBEN. No, but there's my commission my ten per cent. three groschen to the thaler, forty-five groschen lost. I could have made fifty of it a sure fifty. JONADAB. Then why don't you go into the market for yourself ? REUBEN. Why ? why ? And he knows there's not an Israelite in the quarter but himself would touch the hand of Reuben Goldsched. The Christian doctors say the leprosy has disappeared from among us. It's a lie, Jonadab ! What am I but a leper ? Isn't my hand pollu- tion, my breath poison, my very coin infection ? And I'm to trade for myself, am I ? Thank you, Jonadab Ben Manasseh, thank you for the counsel. JONADAB. Nay, Reuben, don't fly out. You've chosen your lot you know our law, and yet REUBEN. Yet I married a Christian, and out myself off from fellowship with my brethren from their counsel, their law, their offices, their gains. I did, Jonadab Ben Manasseh ; and if the Pamasim were to offer me all I've lost to undo my act, I'd stand by it. There, Jonadab Ben Manasseh, I'd stand by it. JONADAB. Well, your Lina is a good soul Christian though she be. 6 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. REUBEN. A good soul ! I've dealt in diamonds all my life, Jonadab, and I tell you, she's a diamond worth all I've given for her. (sighs] And that's a heavy price, (shout- ing without] What's that noise ? JONADAB. The people receiving the French army. They marched in this morning by the Maintzer Gate, whilst our Prussians marched out by the Hanau I must be off to welcome our deliverers. Here's a packet for you from the post office, (gives it to him) Farewell, Reuben ! (shout without] Liberty ! fraternity ! equality ! huzza ! Exit, D. F. shouts without. REUBEN, (alone] Shout away ! Cheer till your throats crack ! I would cheer with you, but I mustn't wake our little one ! Liberty ! fraternity ! equality ! Yes, if my brethren cast me out, France opens a wider brotherhood. No more oppression of Jew by Gentile, or what's sorer still, of Jew by Jew. With this day begins a deliverance greater than Moses wrought for our fathers. I've watched the light grow grow grow and now it has spread to us, who sit in darkness. No more strife, no more blood, no more hunting down of man by his fellow man Enter the MARQUIS DE ST. CAST, hurriedly, as if from pursuit, D. in F. Who's this ? (the MAEQUIS removes his roquelaure] Citizen Bon Enfant ! MARQUIS. (L.) Look to the door, my friend, (aside] I think I've given my ragged compatriots the slip. The most unsavoury specimens of the genus Frenchman that ever reeked garlic ! Peugh ! REUBEN, (who has closed and barred the door after looking out] The street is empty ! My brethren have gone to welcome yours. You should have been with them, citizen. MARQUIS. I trust I shall not be missed, citizen. I'm no Pharisee I hate greetings in the market place. (shouts heard without. REUBEN. (R.) Hark! Liberty! fraternity! equality! doesn't your heart leap to the sound ? MARQUIS. (L.) A good deal more than is agreeable. If Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 7 you had heard as much of that tune as I have, with its a la lanterne obligate, you would not be quite so enthu- siastic, (after looking out] Come, my excellent friend, let us play our cards face uppermost you have your suspi- cions about me ? REUBEN. No I've my certainties. MARQUIS, (starting] And they are REUBEN. That you are an emigre an aristocrat on your way to join the army of the princes detained here for want of money, where you employ me to sell your trinkets for the day's needs, (looking at his diamond pin) I say, citizen, that's a very pretty solitaire in your cravat, beautiful stones, and well set. Dear, dear ! to think of a man peddling with pins and shoe buckles, and such a cluster of brilliants as that to trade with ! Now what would you take for it ? I could find a customer for it at a thousand thalers, and my commission. MABQUIS. Thank you ; but while my neck keeps its place on my shoulders, this keeps its place on my neck. It was my father's his death bed gift. REUBEN. Ah, well, well, you know best the money would be more use to you, straitened as you are. MAKQUIS. And, therefore, I trust, not worth giving up to my tatterdemallion countrymen, who have just marched in under General Neuwinger REUBEN. On the contrary never so well worth giving up as to-day Marquis MABQUIS. Marquis ? REUBEN. De St. Cast. MARQUIS. Pardon me titles are abolished Citizen Bon Enfant, if you please. REUBEN. Yes, on the address of your letters, but, ' Marquis de St. Cast ' on the inner rim of your shoe buckles. You should take care to efface the letters before you sell things I did here's the money, fifteen thaler. Count it I've deducted my commission three groschen to the thaler. MARQUIS, (after a pause) I am in your power. Have you any idea what I'm worth to betray ? Because if you'll mention the sum, we can consider whether I may not prove worth more to shelter. 8 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. REUBEN. This may help us in the calculation. (showing Mm the packet. MARQUIS. A packet addressed to me ? I expected it it contains some family papers, (puts his hand out for packetj REUBEN. Pardon me it contains bills and assignats. MARQUIS. You have broken the seal ? REUBEN. No, but I've felt the cover I've a remarkably sensitive finger and thumb. MARQUIS, (opening packet) Yes, you are right. Here, you are more used to this sort of thing than I am let me know the amount, (gives him the packet) REUBEN, (rapidly running over the notes] At the Ham- burg rate of exchange, two hundred thousand thalers, and some odd groschen at the London rate, some three thousand thaler less the exchanges were against England, you know, by the last expresses. You see, Marquis, your head's worth powder and shot, (giving back the packet} MARQUIS. Precisely and he that would buy it, shall be paid in that coin. So (drawing a pistol from his pocket and presenting it] REUBEN. Put it up put it up ! MARQUIS. You are afraid REUBEN. Only of your wakening the baby. No, no, Monsieur le Marquis, don't be alarmed my life is not worth half the money nor yours neither. MARQUIS. Why, you calculated the notes yourself. REUBEN. Yes but how many of them do you think would fall to my share if I denounced you to your country- men ? Besides, it's not business-like to betray a customer. MARQUIS. But you have declared yourself a disciple of Messrs. Danton and Robespierre you know me as a ci-devant, an aristocrat REUBEN. But above all, as a customer. I love money, but it must be the money that breeds ; blood money's always barren ! Your secret is safe in my hands. (goes towards cradle, R. MARQUIS. (L.) How can I repay you for this ? REUBEN. By thinking a little more charitably of the next Jew you deal with and I say, should you determine on parting with that solitaire, and didn't object to a Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 9 reasonable commission say twelve groschen in the thaler MARQUIS. I will not forget my friend Reuben Gold- sched. But I must leave Frankfort to-day for Coblentz ; let me at least offer you this acknowledgment of your services, (offering a note] REUBEN. A two hundred thaler bill. (looks at it hesitatingly. MARQUIS. Don't pain me by refusing it. You hesitate. REUBEN. It's not negotiable without your signature. MARQUIS, (goes to table, R. c., takes pen, and siyns if) There (giving it back to him) a souvenir for the baby, you know. REUBEN. (R.) Good, good she wants it badly enough, poor thing, (takes note} So do we all so do we all. (crosses to L. MARQUIS. (R.) And now, my friend, thanks, and fare- well, (offers his hand) REUBEN. What, you're not afraid to touch the hand of the leper ? They won't my own people won't. There (takes his hand] A Jew's blessing won't harm a Christian. Jehovah guide you. (REUBEN opens the door, and looks out the MARQUIS puts on his roquelaure, and goes up to pass out as he is about to do so, REUBEN suddenly seizes him, forces him behind the door, which he throws open to its full width, so as to conceal the MARQUIS, while he plants himself on the threshhold) (in an undertone) Your countrymen ! Quiet, for your life. (the tramp of troops is heard a FRENCH PATROL, ragged and almost shoeless, passes along the street, singing the " Ca ira," (or the " Aliens, enfans de la patrie." (REUBEN shouts as they pass) Liberty ! fraternity ! equality ! Huzza ! (he looks after them) There go our liberators ! MARQUIS. (R.) And my executioners if they catch me. REUBEN. Yes, a minute more, and you would have been in the middle of them, (looks out again) They halt, and pile arms Ishmael Wolff brings out wine to them they are placing sentries at the corner. 10 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. MARQUIS. I must passihrough them to reach my hotel. If they stop me REUBEN, (t.) Your tongue will betray you for a Frenchman your air for a noble you'll be searched. Have you a card of citizenship ? MARQUIS. Not I. The brigands! I know their practice. " Your money or your life ! " REUBEN. No " Your money and your life," in your case you can't disguise your condition. MARQUIS. What's to be done ? I don't care for my life but this money REUBEN. That's right take care of the money. MARQUIS. It is all I can leave my wife and child. Reuben, may I trust you ? REUBEN. Isn't it rather late to ask the question ? MARQUIS. True I have trusted you I will trust you farther. Take charge of this packet for me. REUBEN. Trust a Jew with your money as well as your neck ? MARQUIS. I have no alternative and I have faith in you. I must return to my hotel, the White Horse I have papers there which would compromise the cause I serve these destroyed REUBEN. But if you should be destroyed first ? MARQUIS. I must risk it. I may put my fortune in safety it is my own. My life I am bound to venture it is my king's, (going up} REUBEN, (aside, and shrugging his shoulders) These Christian notions ! Stop, (gathers his roquelaure about -his neck} Best cover up that solitaire. MARQUIS. Corbleu ! You are right, my friend. Liberty, fraternity, and equality are an immaculate trio, but they can't resist diamonds. Exit MARQUIS, L. D. F., to i,. REUBEN, (at door, looking after him] If liberty, frater- nity, and equality have only had enough of Ishmael Wolff's Geissenheimer ! Ha, he has passed the first sentry. Good good ! Now he doesn't shirk that's right, keep your roquelaure close. Bless him, he's a brave man ! Ah, the Serjeant stops him ! he lays his hand on his shoulder yes, he's offering him wine. Good good ! a swingeing Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. H patriot toast now he drinks ! How d'ye like hob-nobbing with the brigands, my fine gentleman ? He passes on he's safe safe safe as his own bills and assignats, here, the darlings, (shuts door and comes doivn) I'm glad of it glad of it it's the first hand has touched mine in kindness this many a long day, save my Lina's. But I must put away his notes, (looking at them) Good bills beautiful bills on our own people Meyer's, Oppenheim's, Mendelsohn's, as good as gold every bit. Ha, ha ! f proudly} The Jew can keep up his credit, (contemptu- ously) And look at their assignats, at twenty-five per cent, discount. Oh, these Christian governments ! No, France isn't a Christian government ! (fingering the notes} Here's a capital to go into the market with ! Such times, too, for people with their wits about them. Stocks up and down like the sea in a storm exchanges shifting like April weathercocks money worth fifty per cent, to them that can turn it over, (kisses the notes) Bless you, if you were mine to play with ! If he'd only asked me to make the best of his money for him ! f pausing] Holy prophets ! and the fool's gone without a receipt never even asked for one ! This is the Christian way of doing business ! And his throat may be cut at any moment. No receipt no witness and my poor Lina starving here and our little one (nervously fingering the notes] No, no, no let me put 'em up ! There's Belzebub's endorsement on every- one of 'em. (closes the packet) I'll seal them close, (going to light taper] Oh, I must have another look at 'em, the beauties, (begins calculating the notes) For two thousand at three months, accepted Oppenheim's, in blank their name's equal to cash on any change. Three thousand and fifty Riedel. He's a Christian, but a good man a good man. Four thousand Enter LINA, D. F., with a basket, pale and frightened REUBEN, absorbed in his calculations does not notice her entrance she goes hastily to the cradle, K. LINA. (B.) Thank Heaven ! they've not wakened our darling ! REUBEN. (L., hastily looking up] Lina ! Well, you've sold your embroidery ? 1'2 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. LIKA. Yes, here's the money, Reuben I took it to the shop in the Sand Gasse they don't know me there. (she sinks into chair. REUBEN, (going over to her) What's the matter, dear? You look pale you are ill ? (alarmed] LINA. No, no, I shall be better directly, (shudders} It's the sights I've seen, Reuben the French soldiers. REUBEN, (surprised) Our liberators, darling ? LINA. Our liberators ? Oh, Reuben, what is the liberty that comes with ribaldry on the tongue, drunken fury in the eye, and blood upon the hands REUBEN. Blood! LINA. They were massacring an unhappy prisoner as I passed through the Fahr Gasse I see him now. (puts her hand before her eyes. REUBEN. A prisoner ! A Frenchman a tall young man in a roquelaure, a diamond solitaire in his cravat ? LINA. I could not look. I saw the blood I hurried past it was horrible ! REUBEN, (aside} If it should be the Marquis I'll go and learn. In the Fahr Gasse, you said ? LINA. Do not leave me, Reuben do not leave me. They may come here. REUBEN. And if they do> they are our brethren the brethren of all the world, except tyrants and oppressors. LINA. They think all your people rich, and the rich are the oppressors when the poor have the naming of them. REUBEN. That's true, (aside} The notes ! Lina, darling, may I trust you ? LINA. (astonished} Reuben ! REUBEN. Your heart, I know I can but your nerves? LINA. While you are with me I feel no fear. I was a silly child to tnink of the French coming here this is no place for plunderers. REUBEN. Hush ! Look here ! (showing notes} LINA. Notes bills of exchange in your hands, Reuben. REUBEN. They were left with me just now by a French- man, an aristocrat who knows, perhaps the very man you saw the soldiers murdering. LINA. Oh, I pray not I pray not. Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 13 REUBEN. So do I. But there is only one such hunted life between us and these (shoiving notes] between us and wealth, darling. LINA. He left them in your safe keeping, Reuben ? REUBEN. Yes, but he never asked for a receipt. LINA. And you did not remind him of the omission ? Oh, Reuben, Reuben ! (she turns aiuay, and bursts into tears} REUBEN. Don't cry, darling I can't bear to see you cry. What, can you not trust me ? LINA. Can you trust yourself? REUBEN. But if he should not come back ? How am I to know who has a right to the money ? LINA. We at least, have no right to it. REUBEN. But it can't be left lying idle. Bills aren't drawn to be sealed and put away like Egyptian mummies. I could turn it over so nicely, till the rightful owner appeared, of course and then all our suffering would be at an end. We would leave Frankfort I would change my name we would go to Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, London anywhere where there's business to be done, and an exchange to do it on. We should soon be rich. LINA. Reuben, the devil is a cunning tempter and his most tempting bait is greed of gold. REUBEN. No, no, it is not that I would use this money only use it, mind for you, Lina. LINA. Love may be one of the devil's baits too. REUBEN. For our little one LINA. The tempter can wear the mask even of that innocent babe. No more hesitation, dearest you must seek out this man give him back his money REUBEN. To see his pocket picked of it the very next minute ? Oh, it would be a sin a sin ! LINA. Or at least, if you must be his depositary, give him a receipt find out to whom the notes are to go, in case of his death or disappearance. Go, dear, at once, (he is goiny} Stop, give me the notes till you return, (she offers to take the packet, he draws it back) REUBEN. No, let me keep 'em about me, do it's so long since I felt the warmth of a good bill in my breast pocket. B 14 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. LINA. Reuben, when I first loved you, they told me I was mad to give my heart to a Jew, to one in whose eyes gold was more than home, or wife, or child. I did not believe them I married you for you I gave up father and mother, sisters, brothers, all I clave to you as Ruth clave to Boaz I have known suffering and scorn, care and poverty, with you, Reuben. Till to-day I never doubted that I had chosen well. Oh, Reuben, will you drive me to doubt it now ? (REUBEN, after a struggle, thrusts the packet into his ivife's hand} REUBEN. Take it, Lina, take it keep it close. Don't let me have it again if I go on my knees for it. Better love and trust with beggary, than money that brings a cloud between you and me. LINA. (kissing him) That's my own Reuben ! And n6w to find the Marquis REUBEN. He said he was at the White Horse, I'll go thither If only he have given the soldiers the slip, (a knock at the door to LINA) The notes the notes ! (she conceals them in the pocket of her dress} Who's there ? MAKQUIS. (outside] Citizen Bon Enfant! Quick, let me in ! REUBEN, (to LINA) The Marquis ! (opens the door in flat] LINA. Thank Heaven he has escaped the bloodhounds. Enter the MARQUIS, with a desk concealed under his cloak. MARQUIS, (coming down, L.) Safe, so far ! (sees LINA) A lady ! (salutes her she curtsies] REUBEN, (tip, c.) My wife! you may trust her as weii as myself better, much better she knows all. MARQUIS, (aside) The deuce she does ! (to her] Chris- tian husbands are not so confiding. Well, I have baffled the sans- culottes, at the cost of hob-a-nobbing with the ragged est rascal of a Serjeant. I have destroyed such of my papers as are too bulky for removal the rest are here in my travelling desk, (shoicing desk] I have secured a carriage it is to wait for me outside the Hanau Gate I came to give you the address at Coblentz, to which you may forward any letters that arrive for Citizen Bon Enfant. Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 15 LINA. (B.) But your deposit, sir. (crossing to c.) My husband was lamenting just now he had not given you a receipt for it. Write, Reuben, write. REUBEN. (K.) You know you never asked for one, and I forgot to remind you (stops] But if it's found in your possession, it may cost us our lives. MARQUIS. (L.) Oh, as an old conspirator, I am pre- pared for such risks, (takes from his pocket a phial] Here's sympathetic ink, invisible till brought out by heat write your receipt in this. REUBEN, (writes, reading as he does so] " Received of the Marquis de St. Cast, the sum of two hundred thousand thalers, payable on demand Reuben Goldsched." LINA. (up, c.) Let me witness it, and add the date. (writes and reads] "October 22nd, 1792. Witnessed, Lina Goldsched." REUBEN, (taking notes, sits by fire, R.) Stay, let me count the bills once more to make quite sure of the amount. (aside] I must finger 'em, the darlings, (sits and counts notes, while the next speech is spoken] MARQUIS. A superfluous formality but as you insist, my honest friends stay, I'll deposit the receipt in the secret drawer of my desk, (produces a desk of buhl, richly orna- mented with Sevres, from underneath his cloak he opens it, and touches a spring tvhich opens a secret draiver in which he deposits the paper, while REUBEN is absorbed in counting the notes to LINA) A pretty thing, is it not? My poor wife's parting gift she had two made, one with her portrait on the plaque see, here it is, for me, the other, with mine, for herself, (sighs] LINA. (up c.) Your wife, sir ! she is safe, I hope ? MAKQUIS. Pray Heaven she is ! I was forced to leave her and our boy on the other side of the frontier. Who knows when I shall see them again ? But I am wasting precious minutes. Adieu, my good and honest friends ! LINA. One moment! (she lights a candle at fire, R.) The amount of the notes is named in the receipt, Reuben ? REUBEN. (R.) Yes, Lina, yes ! LINA. (c.) Let me replace them in the packet. REUBEN, (ruefully} Here they are! LINA. (replacing them in the packet} There ! and now, 16 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. sir, your seal on this packet, (gives MARQUIS the light and wax, he seals the packet} But if you should never return to claim this deposit, leave us some clue by which we may transmit it to your wife ! MARQUIS. You will find her by a letter addressed REUBEN. No, tell us nothing what a tongue can speak, a tongue may be forced by terror or torture to reveal Write, papers can be hidden. MARQUIS. Perhaps you are right, (he has ivritten while LINA was speaking} There ! This paper will enable you to discover my wife's retreat, (lays it on table] Now, to gain my carriage ! (the march of SOLDIERS, drums and shouts heard in the street} Hark ! LINA. I will guide you by a safer road to the gate. Look to the paper, Reuben. This way, sir. Exit LINA, guiding off MARQUIS by a door, L. 2 E. REUBEN. Oh, these women ! these women ! they won't give one a chance ! not a chance. But she's right she's always right, Christian as she is. This paper ! his wife's address ? No, I wont read it, I'll put it away with the packet Lina shall keep them both. Eh ? she's taken the notes with her ! Oh ! I wish she had left me them a little while longer, it did me good to handle 'em ! Good girl! The Marquis will be safe in her hands, (sighing} It's a mercy his throat wasn't cut before I gave the receipt, (ruefully} JONADAB. (without} Reuben ! Reuben ! REUBEN. Jonadab Ben Manasseh! (opening door, -p.} Enter JONADAB, D. in F. Why, what's the matter ? Is the synagogue on fire ? JONADAB. (L.) It soon may be. The French are in possession of the town. They're fraternizing with the citizens. REUBEN. Ah! glorious fellows ! With Jew and Gentile alike, eh, Jonadab ? JONADAB. Yes, they don't show any preference who ever has victuals must produce 'em, and money and goods are confiscated without the slightest distinction. REUBEN. And isn't it our duty to welcome our deliverers, Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 17 to give 'em the best we have ? Who'd begrudge them ? Not I, for one. JONADAB. Why, you see, Reuben, you haven't much for 'em to take, unless they had a fancy for eating babies. But I dare say they will pay you a visit. I hear they talk of plundering the Jews' quarter. That rascally convert, Isaac Solomon, has promised to put them up to all our strong boxes, all our snug hiding places. Ah, Reuben you're a happy man ; yours are empty. REUBEN. Yes, empty, empty, strong box and till. You can tell Isaac I've nothing to lose, Jonadab, can't you Jonadab ? JONADAB. Isaac won't believe me, the cursed Meshumet, the converted dog ! REUBEN. And I won't believe him. What, the glorious sons of the revolution the apostles of liberty, fraternity and equality stoop to plunder ? It's a lie ! It's a lie ! Re-enter LINA, who pauses an instant at door, L. 2 E. LINA.. It is true, Reuben, too true ! They are in the quarter already, (crosses to c.) Only two doors from your house, Jonadab. JONADAB. Oh, father Abraham ! Father Abraham ! And last week's money all in the place ! I must try and smuggle it out of danger. Ah ! Rabbi Hirsch was right. There are times when an empty purse makes a man sleep soundly I envy you, Reuben ! (shouts and a crash with- out] There they go ! Who knows if that is not my own strong box ? (JONADAB looks out at door and shouts] Vive la France! (aside] Oh, the wretches! (aloud} Liberty, fraternity, equality, for ever ! (aside] Confound the trio ! (aloud] Heaven bless our deliverers ! (shout and crash' aside] They're into my shop, the pork-eating sons of Belial ! Exit JONADAB hastily, D. F. REUBEN, (closing door after him] You saw the Marquis to the gate ? LINA. (K.) He insisted on my leaving him when I had guided him through the quarter. REUBEN. (L.) But you've got the packet, wife? LINA. It is here. REUBEN. Give it me, we must hide it! Where? Where? PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1 . LINA. Under the sliding plank in the floor, (goes to draw plank] REUBEN. No, no, Isaac will have put them up to that ! He knows the place 'twas his own shop once. LINA. The false back of the press. REUBEN. They'll be sure to probe that with their bayonets ! (wringing his hands') Oh, these beautiful bills ! these beautiful bills ! (noise of footsteps heard ivithouf] LINA. Hark! here they come! They are here! REUBEN. Oh, what is to be done ? If they find it on you, they '11 murder you. Give it me ! Better me than you ! LINA. No, no ! (violent knocking heard at door] HORATIUS. (without] Open in the name of the Re- public one and indivisible ! REUBEN. Ha ! I have it. In the cradle ! The little one will be sacred. (knocking repeated} (LiNA thrusts the packet into the cradle, L., snatches up her work and seats herself beside cradle, rocking it with forced compostire.] Enter LEONIDAS, HORATIUS COCLES, and other FRENCH SOLDIERS, in ragged uniforms, headed by ISAAC, i>. in F. REUBEN, (up R. c., fawninglyj You are welcome to my poor house, gentlemen. LE"ONIDAS. (L.) Gentlemen, the word is suspected HORATIUS.* (c.) The word is more than suspected, ciftzen Leonidas, it is criminal. It entails as its first consequence confiscation ! Yes, madame I mean, female citizen (raising his hat and making a low bow to LINA) Much as serjeant Horatius Codes, of the first Legere re- grets to give pain to a lady that is to a female citizen, I grieve to say that the language of this individual LINA. My husband, citizen ! HORATIUS. Hum! (looking from one to the other] I applaud his taste ! I regret I cannot say so much for yours. I say, the language of this individual, coupled with the fact of his having kept the Republic one and indivisible, kicking its heels outside his door, justifies the worst suspicions. Citizen Isaac, attention ! (ISAAC starts, L.) Conduct the Republic one and indivisible to the suspected citizen's strong box. Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 19 REUBEN, (dozen, c.) Nay, gent /TIoBATius and LEONiDAsyroww) worthy citizens, gallant deliverers, if you find more than half a thaler in the place you may cut my throat and welcome, (to ISAAC) You needn't trouble yourself, my good friend, I'll show the way myself. Look, gentlemen, I'm poor, poor, no cash, (opens drawers, i,.J no stock, nothing but our pots and pans, and my wheel, gent citizens ! we're beggars, beggars ! Jehovah help us ! (the SOLDIEKS search everywhere) ISAAC, (malignantly') You forget I occupied the shop myself, once, my good Reuben. The sliding plank in the floor REUBEN. Will you allow me to open it, my excellent Isaac. Look ! (opens plank, c.) Dust and cobwebs it was better tenanted in Isaac's time not a poor little pair of groschen to keep one another warm, (the SOLDIERS look} LEONIDAS. (at back of plank} Empty as my haversack ! HOBATIUS. (up, B. c.) Disgusting ! Is this the way to reward your deliverers ? REUBEN. (L. c.) What's mine is yours, citizens, I'm sorry it's so little. ISAAC. You forget the false back to the press, my good Reuben, (malignantly, as before) REUBEN, {pushing him gently aside J Will you allow me to shew our noble deliverers the spring, my invaluable Isaac: (opens back of clipboard, L., SOLDIEKS probe it with their bayonets, Sfc.} Search, citizens, search ! If you can find a copper kreutzer it's more than I have been able to do, this many a long day. (the SOLDIERS disperse to search in other rooms and up staircase, R.) ISAAC, (crossing towards cradle, R.) Bed clothes have served for hiding places before now. (SOLDIERS folloiv him across, REUBEN turns pale, L.) LINA. (B. c., with a smile to HORATIUS) The citizen is a father, he won't let them waken my baby ? HORATIUS. (by fireplace, R.) No, sacre mille tonnerres > I've a young Horatius Codes of my own, and I am aware that his music, when disturbed, is anything but agreeable. LEONIDAS. (R. c.) Suppose I just tried a little with my bayonet ? LINA. (starting up} And suppose I tried a little with 20 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1 . my nails. Are you men ? are you fathers ? and cannot respect a mother's treasure stand back ! HORATIUS. (R.) Bravo, female citizen ! I give you free leave to use your natural weapons. For shame, citizen Leonidas the Republic one and indivisible, respects babies. Let the young citizen sleep on ! LINA. (thronging her arms round her neck and kissing him) Serjeant, you are a brave man ! The kiss of Fraternity, you know. HORATIUS. It is incomplete without the rest of the sacred trio, (kisses her) One for Liberty, (kisses her again} and one for Equality, (to REUBEN, who has comedown, R.) Don't look black, citizen, your female is under my pro- tection I'll leave a guard of honour at the door henceforth you may sleep secure under the a?gis of the Republic one and indivisible ! Will you oblige me with a light for my pipe ? (to LINA) (LiNA goes to fireplace for a light the SOLDIERS return from their search] Enter MARCUS, D. F., and down, ~L. c. MARCUS. Ha, comrades ! what luck here ? LEONIDAS. (L.) Not a sou a beggarly hole ! HORATIUS. (c.) I value the salute of such a pair of lips at a hundred francs, in assignats. MARCUS. A pretty set of fellows you are to be wasting your time here with such game as is to be had in the streets aristocrats to hunt c,i-devants on their way to the princes, to smoke out of their holes and skin after- wards. (LiNA returning with the candle, overhears, and starts') We caught one trying to escape at the Hanau Gate, not ten minutes ago no card of citizenship, white hands, lace ruffles, a smooth tongue in his head every sign of a traitor. LINA. (coming to R. c., tremblingly offers the candle] The light for your pipe, citizen. HORATIUS. Thanks, female citizen. His name? MARCDS. He called himself the Citizen Bon Enfant. (REUBEN starts LINA trembles they exchange looks. HORATIUS. A feigned name, no doubt. Light ! (LiNA trembles] Why, how your hand shakes ! Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 21 REUBEN, (taking candle from LINA) She's had it this twelvemonth a kind of palsy. HORATIUS. Set down the candle I don't like the flavour of tallow in my tobacco. I'll light my pipe for myself, (going to table, he takes up paper which the MAR- QUIS has left, and which he has overlooked] Ha, writing ! MAECUS. What have we here ? REUBEN, (aside to LINA) The paper left by the Marquis. MARCUS, (looking at paper upside down] Hum ! an in- fernally cramp hand ! LINA. (aside to REUBEN) Take it from him. REUBEN, (aside] I dare not he will suspect. LINA. (aside} He cannot read. REUBEN, (aside} Isaac can. HORATIUS. (ticists the paper into a spill] Of no conse- quence, eh, citizen ? ISAAC, (advancing, c.) Let me see it. REUBEN, (snatches it from HORATIUS, and hastily lights it at candle] Not of the slightest consequence. Here, Serjeant, (gives it him lighted] LINA. (aside to REUBEN, as he passes her, carrying back the light] The clue destroyed ! Oh, Reuben Reuben ! REUBEN, (aside to her] 'Twas for our lives. HORATIUS. (smoking his pipe] You disposed of your prisoner, eh ? MARCUS. Yes, as an aristocrat should be disposed of. He died like a badger biting hard. Here's my share of his skin, (takes out solitare] REUBEN, (aside to LINA) The Marquis's solitaire ! LINA. (aside] Murdered! MARCUS. You should know the value of these stones, Jew here, (crossing to c.) how much will you give, eh ? (h-)lds it out to REUBEN, who takes it tremblingly} Why, what's the matter ? Do you think I'll bayonet you too ? REUBEN. There's blood upon it. (returns it] MARCUS. Ha, ha, ha! how squeamish we are, to be sure ! How much, you dog ? REUBEN. I think I could find a friend would give you thirty thalers for it. I've no money of my own, as these gent HORATIUS. (sternly] Ha! 22 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. REUBEN. As these worthy citizens know. ISAAC, (coming down between REUBEN and LEON IDAS) Let me see let me see ! (takes solitaire aside, crossing to L.) It's worth a thousand! Oh, that rogue, Reuben, wanted to get it for thirty ! (aloud to MARCUS) I'll give you fifty for it. MARCUS. I'm your man for fifty. Not a bad share for an honest republican private, eh, serjeant ? HOEATIUS. The lion's share, I should think. MARCUS. Marcus Juninus Brutus Coquelicot is a lion. (hoisting his moustache] But the lieutenant had the best of the booty, of course. LEONIDAS. (disgusted) Of course* Though we do hear so much of liberty, fraternity, and equality , HOEATIUS. Out of the ranks, my excellent Leonidas. But what was the lieutenant's share ? MARCUS. The aristocrat's writing desk, full of papers. LINA. (aside to REUBEN) The receipt, Reuben ! HORATIUS. Political letters, eh ? MARCUS. The lieutenant said so, of course, and sealed up the desk for the general's inspection, as he said. HORATIUS. I shouldn't like to be in the shoes of any traitor those papers may compromise if we catch him LEONIDAS. Six file with loaded muskets bang! He's disposed of! " REUBEN, (aside] If the lieutenant finds my receipt, I'm a dead man. MARCUS. Come, comrades, to the wineshop at the corner, to moisten the Jew's bargain. ISAAC. Ay, I'll stand treat (aside} till you all see double, and then twenty-five thalers may pass for fifty. HORATIUS. With all my heart! This representative of the republic is as dry as a burnt cartridge case. To the wineshop ! quick march ! Adieu female, citizen. Exeunt ISAAC and SOLDIERS, except LEONIDAS and HORATIUS, D. F LINA. Adieu, serjeant. But I hope you'll protect us from another visit of the Republic, one and indivisible. Come, for my sake, dear serjeant. HORATIUS. I will. Here is my promise under seal. (kisses her] The republic is not proud it has a fraternal Sc. I PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 23 salute for Jew or Gentile, provided always they're pretty and willing. Here, Leonidas, pen, ink, and paper ! (LEONIDAS produces a lump of chalk] Here's pen and ink, and here's paper, (opens the door in flat, and draws a large round in chalk) My penmanship is limited, but univer- sally intelligible all the army can read that. It's equiva- lent to Nix, and means that you aren't worth plundering. (to REUBEN) There, you're safe, (contemptuously} A Jew without a rap ! No wonder they drummed you out of the synagogue as a disgrace to your species ! Going out, D. F. REUBEN, (forcing a laugh ) Ha, ha, ha ! Ah, serjeant, you're a merry man a merry man ! If that isn't the best thing ! Oh, ho, ho, ho ! (laughing sees them out, and locks the door) Lina, if that receipt is discovered ! There's no mercy for any one found dealing with an aristocrat. Wake and dress the baby we must fly to-night at once ! It's lucky we have the means. LINA. (B.) Have we the means, Reuben? REUBEN. (L.) Of course we have the packet, you know. LINA. It is not ours', Reuben. REUBEN. Whose is it ? He's murdered the paper by which we might find his wife, burnt I didn't burn it, Lina that is I was forced to burn it to save our lives wasn't I now ? You saw I was. LINA. I cannot gainsay it, Reuben. Love of life is strong in us stronger of itself than honour. REUBEN. (L.) So it is so it is much stronger. LINA. (B.) But when love of money backs love of life, what chance has honour then ? You should have con- cealed the paper, Reuben. REUBEN. Moses be my witness, I meant to but in the hurry and fright and then it should have gone with the packet, and you had the packet, you know, Lina, and hicky you had. It's better in our hands than those ragged ruffians'. LINA. It is, Reuben, for we will find out those who alone from this time have a right to it will we not, Reuben ? REUBEN. Oh, yes, yes if we can that is 24 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 1. LINA. We can, if we will, dear. REUBEN. Yes, yes, but we are wasting time. They may have found that receipt.. Ah ! you would make me give it, you know you would and now, if they hold it to the fire and bring out the writing, it may cost us our lives. We must fly at once we can drop down the river in one of the market boats there are many of our people bound to the fair at Bonn. Quick, Lina, get on your mantle never mind our pots and pans wrap up our child warm. Here's my father's copy of the law, I mustn't leave that. (LiNA goes to K. and sits by cradle) Why, are you mad, that you linger here ? LINA. No, dear, I will go, (rises] as you bid me but I have a thing to say first Reuben, you love me ? REUBEN. Do you doubt it ? LINA. I \tould have it proved I have never com- plained, love, through all our suffering when friends looked cold, and sore want pinched us, I never murmured, did I, Reuben ? REUBEN. Never, never ! I have seen you pine, and grow pale and wan, till I cursed myself for bringing you to suffering and sorrow but you always smiled, and told me you were happy. LINA. And so I was, till now, Reuben dearest. I sometimes think I shall not long be with you. REUBEN. Don't say that, Lina not that. LINA. If it is Heaven's will to take me from you, Reuben, our common faith teaches us submission. But whether long life or early death be my doom, I think you would not wish to make the one a slow suffering, and the other a bitter agony. Swear to me, Reuben, that you will be true to the trust that the dead reposed in you that you will use all your endeavours to find out the law- ful owners of the money and when they are found, that you will restore it, intact, to their hands, (taking book from 'his hand] Swear to me, Reuben, on your father's copy of the law, (placing the book on the head of the cradle] on the head of our sleeping babe. REUBEN. I will, Lina, I will, when we are safe at Bonn. LINA. No here! and now! (she draws him towards Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 25 the cradle) I will not go without your oath ! All earthly witness to the trust dies with me but the judge of life and death he saw, he sees ! Swear, Reuben ! (Music, very piano} REUBEN, (kneels beside cradle, placing one hand on the book on head of cradle) I swear ! END OF ACT FIRST. ACT SECOND. SCENE Goldsched's Villa at Clapham. A gay and cheerful morning room, luxuriously furnished doors, K. and L. windows opening on the grounds bright with flowerstables, chairs bureau with strong box a por- trait of his wife over the bureau, in the dress she wore in Act 1. Enter DAVID, L., shewing in MR. LYONS. LYONS. It's no use, I must see him ! (crosses to c.) DAVID. It's as much as my place's worth, sir. Miss Lina gave particular orders nobody was to see Mr. Gold- sched on business. LYONS. Miss Lina give orders ! Enter LINA, R. LINA. That she does, Mr. Lyons, and orders she means to be obeyed, too. It's my birthday I'm queen for twenty-four hours and I won't have papa bothered with business during my reign. LYONS. Happy returns of the day, Miss Goldsched. I'm sorry to be troublesome, but I must see your father. LINA. Must! that may do very well in Bartholomew Lane, but at Clapham, I m the only person entitled to use the imperative mood. Papa has consented to give me this 4th of April, and I mean to keep it all to myself so, do go, there's a good, obedient man. LYONS. Miss Goldsched, my interview with your father cannot be deferred you little know what may hang upon it. Ah, here he comes ! o 2G PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. Enter REUBEN GOLDSCHED, n. c. LINA. (E. running up to him) Papa, papa ! now do send away this stubborn man! Tell him the office is shut, the loan account closed, navy fives, four per cent consols, long annuities, and India stock under lock and key that this is Lina's birthday, and that nobody is to have a word to say to papa but Lina. REUBEN, (c., fondly} Bless thee, my pretty one, thou see'st the flies will flock to the honey pot. LYONS. I'm sorry to break in upon you in your rural retreat, Mr Goldsched, extremely sorry, but necessity has no law. So with Miss Lina's leave LINA. (E.) I refuse it! REUBEN, (c.) You see this young lady is absolute to- day, Lyons It's a great day, this not only my Lina's birthday it's my coming of age, too ! LYONS. (L.) Your coming of age, Mr. Goldsched ? REUBEN. This day, twenty-one years ago, I landed in London, from Amsterdam a poor unknown, unfriended man, with my motherless babe in my arms LYONS. And in twenty-one years you've grown from poverty to what you are one of the greatest money merchants in the City of London ! REUBEN. Yes, Lyons, so they call me not that I was quite penniless on landing I had a small capital some two hundred thousand thalers ! It has grown as I grew, Lyons so we hold the three anniversaries in one my girl's birthday, my coining of age, and my fortune's, too ! LINA. I am so sorry I was twenty-one last year, or I should be coming of age, too ! And then not even Mr. Lyons would have ventured on anything so prosaic as business in my presence ! (goes up stage} LYONS. I'm very sorry, .Miss Lina but really, Mr. Goldsched, our firm is driven into a corner ! REUBEN. Let it stay there till to-morrow ! LYONS. You said we might rely upon you. REUBEN. Tell your customers so. LYONS. You advised all our operations we have made heavy advances on three per cents reduced they're down Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 27 six within the last five days we must realize at a fright- ful loss unless we can hold on for a turn in the market. REUBEN. Hold on, my friend hold on, by all means you see I'm holding on ! LINA. (coming down, c.) Well, if this isn't flat treason talking business in my very face ! LYONS. (L., earnestly} For mercy's sake, my dear Miss Goldsched do you want to laugh our firm into the Bank- ruptcy Court? LINA. (c., changing her tone) Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Lyons I do, indeed ! I had no idea matters were so serious I won't play the fool any longer you will forgive a spoiled child say you will, and I'll run away to my piano, and leave you to your dreary money matters no- body seems happy over them, except papa by bye, papa dear, you'll send for me when you've done with Mr. Lyons and then I shall be Birthday Queen again, shan't I ? REUBEN. (B.) Yes yes my darling! LINA. And you'll help Mr. Lyons, if you can, papa, won't you ? I can't bear to see him looking so worn and anxious and to think I've prolonged his anxiety by my thoughtlessness ! Promise me you'll do what you can for him? REUBEN, (kissing her} Anything for thy asking, darling! LINA. That's my own papa ! (to LYONS) Good bye, Mr. Lyons ! (aside, to him) I ve said a good word for yo\i to papa, so don't be down-hearted! Exit LINA, B. c. REUBEN. (B., sharply, to LYONS) Now what's this about difficulties ? Look sharp tell me the worst ! LYONS. Acting on your advice, as I said, we have ad- vanced upwards of 200,000 on Omnium, at par, and now it's at lOf- discount if we realize, the firm can't stand it, and we can't go on without an advance of 50,000, to *meet to-day's bills ! REUBEN. How do we stand with you ? Let me see ? LYONS. Here's my note of your advances to us. (takes out account book} REUBEN. Curse your account book ! D'ye think I don't know the amounts ? LYONS. Have you a list of them ? REUBEN. Yes, in the best account book ! (touching his 28 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. forehead) Here ! I hold your acceptances to the amount of 260,000 12s. 8d. LYONS. Right, to a penny ! Oh, what a head you have, Mr. Goldsched ! If we stop, we can't pay above 7s. 6d. in the pound. REUBEN. And I shall lose 80,000. Good. If I advance you this 50,000, 1 risk 130,000. Good. What securities do you offer ? LYONS. Exchequer bills South Sea stock Irish fives ! REUBEN, (rapidly) They closed at 85 yesterday won't touch 'em ! Nothing else ? LYONS. We've some heavy bills of the Commander- in - Chief's ! REUBEN. Good I'll take them! (goes to table, R., and sits) LYONS. I should tell you they're at eight discount ! REUBEN. All the better send them over to my cashier here's my bill for 50,000, (writes) at one month ! LYONS. Oh, Mr. Goldsched! you've saved the firm! How can we ever repay you ? REUBEN. With fifteen per cent, for the accommodation ! LYONS. Fifteen per cent. ? REUBEN. (K.) If you don't like my terms, you'd better go elsewhere for the money ! LYONS. (L. c.) Make it ten, Mr. Goldsched! REUBEN. I never haggle fifteen per cent., or I tear up my bill ! LYONS. You shall have it you shall have it yes you've saved the firm ! (aside) But you've charged an awful salvage ! Exit LYONS, ~L. D. 2 E. REUBEN, (rubbing his hands) Famous times ! famous times ! Such uncommon lively markets, to be sure Chalons taken by the Allies up go Consols Blucher re- pulsed at Janvilliers down goes omnium Troyes taken by the Emperor long faces among the bulls Troyes retaken by Schwartzenburg ditto among the bears and so it goes up and down see-saw and we stormy Petrels of Capel Court, we manage to pick up our crumbs out of the storm, while the big ships and the little cock -boats go down down ! (rubbing his hands) Talk of cards and dice, and the gambling table give me the Stock Exchange, with Europe in con- SC. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 29 vulsions That's life that's excitement ! To day, master of millions to-morrow, on the verge of beggary ! And all the while a calm face, and credit credit ! All are glad to shake hands with Reuben Goldsched now to bow to him in the streets to give him the place of honour in the Synagogue and the reading of the law at the great festi- vals though his coat be more threadbare, and his hat rustier than when they spat upon him at Frankfort, in years gone by ! And all built up by this working brain, out of that poor 200,000 thalers, the Frenchman's deposit! Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E. DAVID. Mr. Manasseh, sir, from the office ! REUBEN. I'll see him. Exit DAVID, L. D. 2 E. A jewel of a clerk, Jonadab takes three hundred a year salary, and is worth a thousand, if he knew it, poor creature ! But he was always a fool ! Enter JONADAB, L. D. 2. E. Well, Jonadab ! how's the market ! JONADAB. Falling, Mr. Goldsehed falling fast ! Here's the list up to twelve o'clock ! (gives a paper} Don't you think it's time to cover ourselves, before things get worse, Mr. Goldsched? REUBEN. (K.) Not yet, Jonadab not yet ! How do we stand ? Let me see we can hold on two days longer, without risk, I think ! JONADAB (L.) To day's mail is very bad for the Allies, sir ! Napoleon has separated Schwartzenburg and the Prussians at St. Dizier it's thought he must beat them in detail. Depend on it the Allies must fall back from Paris ! REUBEN. (B.) D'ye think so, Jonadab ? JONADAB. (L.) I do, indeed, sir ! REUBEN. Then I don't, Jonadab ! By the bye, you'll receive some bills of the Commander-in-Chiefs, from Lyons and Meyer to day against an advance of 50,000. JONADAB. But Lord Wellington's paper is at a discount in the market. REBBEN. That's why I take it ! Direct our brokers to buy up all the gold they can, before this time to-morrow : never mind the premium let 'em buy ! 30 PAYABLE ON DEMAls ? D. Act 2. JONADAB. (notes the order} Shall I go to our regular brokers, Mr. Goldsched ? REUBEN. You fool ! would you have all Lombard-street know my game ? No go to Lacquerstein Brothers they operate for the Schwarschilds the jobbers will fancy they're buying for them. JONADAB. We shall be very short, I'm afraid, sir our operations in stock have been awful and against a falling market ! I don't know if you're exactly aware of the state of our balances ? REUBEN. Another day of this work would break us ! Is that what you mean, Jonadab ? JONADAB. I'm afraid that's about it, Mr. Goldsched ! REUBEN. Well, I'll stand where I am till to-morrow ! It's a bold game I like bold games the tide must turn I know what I'm about remember my instructions about the gold ! JONADAB. There's so little in the market, sir ! REUBEN. There'll be less when we get it all and then those that want it must come to me, Jonadab and they shall have it. by paying for. JONADAB. Well, sir, you know best but we shall want every shilling we can raise to tide over to day ! REUBEN. All the better when the rise comes to-morrow, Jonadab ! By the bye, you may as well sell out 100,000 navy fives ! JONADAB. (astonished] Sellout, sir! We bought at 99|, and now they're down at 95f . Think of the loss, sir ! Besides, your selling that amount would be enough to bring 'em down one per cent. REUBEN. I hope so. Let Lacquerstein buy for us to twice the amount, if they touch 93. JONADAB, But, Mr. Goldsched I don't understand REUBEN. But, Mr. Jonadab, I do understand and that's just the difference between us ! Go and execute my directions. (JONADAB is going, after noting the order} Stop you saw that man from Whitechapel? JONADAB. The pigeon fancier, sir? REUBEN. You gave him my orders to look out with his gun about the Dover road ? JONADAB. Yes, sir ! Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 31 REUBEN. Good ! He sold a rare lot of carrier pigeons to the Schwartzchilds'. I've a curiosity about the breed, Jonadab ! JONADAB. (L.) And you think you could examine it better in a dead specimen, eh, sir ? REUBEN. (K.) Yes, Jonadab Now back to the city lose no time in seeing Lacquerstein let everybody know we're bearing the market ! JONADAB. Oh, Mr. Goldsched ! you're a great man it's a comfort to see you throwing away 100,000. REUBEN. For the chance of making 200,000 when the rise comes ! JONADAB. But if the rise don't come ? REUBEN. We go back to what we were in Frankfort, t\vo-and-twenty years ago you remember those times eh, Jonadab ? JONADAB. Ah ! as if it was yesterday when the French entered the city that brought me down ! REUBEN. And me up You stood by me then, and I haven't f >rgotten it. Who brought you over from Frank- fort ? Who clothed and fed you and taught you business ? And I've not done my best for you yet if all goes well with us to day, I'll raise your salary, Jonadab by twenty pounds, Jonadab ! JONADAB. So you said last year, you know ! REUBEN. Did I ? I forgot but I'll do more I'll give you two thousand of the next loan I contract for, at par, Jonadab, at par ! By the bye, did you see Bricabrac about a pretty present for my girl ? JONADAB. Yes, sir ! He said Miss Lina .called at the shop in Wardour- street yesterday, and chose it. He was to bring it this morning ! But Mr. Goldsched, how ever can you think of such trifles as that, with the market in the state it is, and our balance so low ? REUBEN. Trifles ? My Lina's birthday-present a trifle ? I staid at home here to-day to please her resisted all the temptations of the Exchange the joy of the market to keep her company ! Isn't she a sweet girl, Jonadab ? Like her poor mother, isn't she ? JONADAB. Ah, if she could have lived to see this day, Mr. Goldsched ! 32 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. REUBEN. She sees it from where she is now in the Christian's heaven watching over me and our child. I've prospered ever since I lost her it's her intercession that does it, I know it is my girl has been brought up a Christian for her sake. It was her last wish my poor, long-suffering Lina ! (goes to the bureau, with his eyes fixed on the portrait] JONADAB. (aside} There now he's off thinking on his wife, you might jingle sovereigns at his ear, and he wouldn't turn his head to look at 'em. Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E. DAVID. (L ) A man from Wardour Street, with a package for Miss Lina, sir. REUBEN. (K.) Ah ! the birthday-present ! Let him wait. Exit DAVID, L. D. 2 E. Drive back to the city, Jonadab. Let me have advices of the markets every quarter of an hour. JONADAB. (L.) And for any advances we may require for our Stock account ? REUBEN. Exhaust our credit on Glynn's, and when that's done, send me word what you want from time to time by the same messengers. Never fear I shall find funds, Jonadab strong box isn't empty yet. (pointing to bureau] JONADAB. Father Abraham ! how cool he is ! REUBEN. The Emperor is never so calm, they say, as before a great battle. To-morrow is my Austerlitz. JONADAB. Yes, if the rise come. REUBEN. Victory and a million JONADAB. If it don't REUBEN. Bankruptcy and the Gazette ! Now send in the man from Wardour Street. Exit JONADAB, holding up his hands, L. D. 2 E. Yes, I stand to double my capital if we can but weather the next twelve hours. By my advices from head quarters, Paris must surrender the Emperor must fall ! and then comes the rise as sure as the sun ! Oh, those Schwartz- childs, those Schwartzchilds, to think of their inventing pigeons, and I never thought of anything faster than a chaise and four. Luckily I've the key of their cypher ; Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 33 and if my Whitechapel friend is as good a shot as he boasts, I may have the Paris news first yet ! (goes up and sits by table, c.) Enter HOEATIUS COCLES BRICABRAC with a package, L. D. 2. E. HORATIUS. (L.) Bon jour, Mr. Goldsched. I have bring de beautiful leetle mor9eau dat Mademoiselle choose yesterday, une piece superbe. (opens bag and shews desk used by Marquis in Act 1.) Du vrai Duhl shell of ze real turtle, none of ze mocks plaque vkz Sevres. What a taste ! What a dessin ! What a couleur ! Ah ! I ask you a leetle is he not ravissant ! (in ecstacy} REUBEN. A pretty toy! French, eh? (seated by table, c.) HORATIUS. Fabrique de Paris ! (putting his fingers to the side of his nose] Contrabande, just smuggled over Voyez vous it is historique It belong to Madame la Generale Neuwinger, who die last year. REUBEN, (seated] Ah ! widow of the General who com- manded the corps that occupied Frankfort in ninety-two ! HORATIUS. (L.) Precisement Monsieur have a memory. REUBEN. I have reason to remember it. HORATIUS. And I ! Parbleu, I too, have reason to re- member him. REUBEN. You? HORATIUS. (with conceit} Such as you see me, Monsieur. I was at ze army of ze Rhine oui Monsieur ! Justin Horatius Codes Bricabrac is one of ze heros of '93 ! Ces cochons d' Anglais, dey make me prisoner at Toulon. I rest on ze pontons at Portsmouth, till ze peace of Amiens. Den to revenge me, I marry une Anglaise and make ze enemy of my country to bleed to me in de pocket. REUBEN. Phlebotomy don't suit my constitution your price, Monsieur ? HORATIUS. Ze price ! Aliens, Monsieur, a bagatelle a noting I give him to you, and you shall give me some screep in your next loans, eh ? REUBEN. Your price, my dear ? HORATIUS. Ah mon dieu ! It make me tears in de eyes to part wiz him he is so beautiful ! (contemplating) Regard ! of ze true Rococo, of ze Du Barry, pur-sang ah? 34 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. REUBEN. Your price, my dear ? HORATIUS. But regard, Monsieur, dis portrait what eyes ! what a hair ! what a bosoms ! REUBEN. Your price, my dear ? HOKATIUS. Ah, why will monsieur desolate me by talk of price, wiz a chef d' ceuvre as dis ? What work of artiste ! What inspiration ! What genie ! What chique ! Cre nom d' un petit bonhomme ! (REUBEN rings the bell BRICABRAC alarmed.) What for you have to ring ze bell, my dear monsieur ? REUBEN. I've asked your price four times you won't fix it. Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E. Shew him out ! HORATIUS. (to DAVID). A moment, my good friend, a leetle moment, my dear Monsieur Goldsched ; I sail name him, my price. (REUBEN nods to DAVID, who retires, I. 2 E.) To all the world but Monsieur Goldsched, I say thirty pounds ; to Monsieur Goldsched, I say REUBEN. Ten, ten HORATIUS. Ten ten ? Ten ten ! Ah, monsieur, your play wiz me ten, ten, for dis superbe morceau ? But regard him once more, monsieur. Ten, ten ah ! REUBEN, (seated after looking at if) Yes, yes ! I see I was wrong. HORATIUS. (L.) But certainly you have wrong ten, ten ! Par exemple REUBEN. Here's a chip in the shell, and a crack in the porcelain. Eight-ten, I should have said, my dear. HORATIUS. Ah ! monsieur mock at me ! Monsieur mock at ze arts ! Eight, ten ! Quelle horreur ! N' importe ! I tell you. Mademoiselle chose him. I am French, I can- not to disappoint a young lady I let you have him for twelve. Voila ! REUBEN. I'll give you eight, my dear. Take it or leave it eight pounds, Monsieur Bricabrac. HORATIUS. Ah ! mon Dieu ! mon Dieu ! what shall I do ? It is to weep ze eyes to tear ze hair of ze head ! Eight guinee, mon cher Monsieur Goldsched, eight guinee, and he is yours. Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 35 REUBEN. Good! you would like gold, eh? (taking out his purse) HORATIUS. Mais oui monsieur ! (aside} Ze gold ! he is at a premium. Oui ! I sail prefer some gold, as monsieur is so kind to offer him. REUBEN. Guineas are worth twenty-seven shillings at the present exchanges. (BEICABRAC rubs his hands} Eight times six is forty eight. Two six, from eight, eight leaves six two ; there's six golden guineas and two shil- lings for you, Monsieur Bricabrac. (pushes him money} HORATIUS. Six guinee and two shillings ! Oh, I am rob ! I am skin ! I lose ze eyes of ze head ! I said eight guinee, monsieur. REUBEN. You said in gold, my dear that's what eight guineas in gold cost me, Mr. Bricabrac. When I make a bargain I stick to it, my dear, (rings again) HOBATIUS. I am insulted I am mocked ! Ah, monsieur, what horror and, monsieur, who roll in gold ! (REUBEN rings bell again] N' importe ! I take him. REUBEN. The desk ! there it is, my dear. Enter DAVID, t. D. 2 E. HORATIUS. (L.) No, monsieur, ze money and if, monsieur sail again want some charming article of virtu. REUBEN. I shan't come to your shop for it. HORATIUS. Oh, de grace ! Monsieur shall come to my shop is he not my confrere, my camarade ? REUBEN, (contemptuously} Your comrade ? HOKATIUS. Mais certainment, all ze two, we make war on dese Sacres Rosbifs. What ze little caporal attempt in vain, you and me, monsieur, we effect we take de Englishman's capital ! Ha, ha ! Exit BRICABRAC, shown out by DAVID, t. D, 2 E. REUBEN, (rises} I've got it a bargain! a beautiful bargain ! Half a guinea under the value at least. A Frenchman against a Jew ! (covers desk with his handker- chief} Poor creature! Poor creature! (yoes up to c.) Lina, my dear ! Re-enter LlNA,/rom E. c., and down,!,. LINA. (L.) Well, papa, all those horrid business people 36 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2 gone at last ? Oh ! I'm so glad ! now you're all mine for the rest of the day. REUBEN. There's your birthday present, my dear, (un- covers the desk and gives it to her] LINA. (sits c.) The pretty desk I chose at Bricabrac's yesterday ! You dear, good papa ! (kisses him) Isn't it charming ? So delightfully old-fashioned ! Just such a thing as one's grandmother must have kept her love letters in. (sits on footstool at his feet and opens it] Such an old world perfume of Marechale powder about it ! I must shew it to Monsieur Victor. REUBEN. Who's he ? LINA. Don't you know ? My music master. He has the most perfect taste. I'm so sorry it isn't the day for his lesson. REUBEN. And what will you put in it, darling ? LINA. Ah, I haven't any love letters, your know. Sup- pose you gave me mamma's to you. REUBEN. No, they must stay here, Lina, (pointing to his breast pocket} on my heart while it beats ; on my heart when it is still. LINA. Dear papa, (kissing him) then you shall write me a love letter, and it shall have all this pretty desk to itself, till I get a few others, that is I suppose I shall some day. REUBEN. Love letters, my Lina, ay ? they'll not be wanting. The butterflies will flutter round thee, sure enough. But you'll remember they're only foul and slimy worms for all their wings; never forget that; it's the money they come for, not thy love, child. It's a bitter lesson, dear, but it must be learnt. LINA. Oh dear ! oh dear ! I wish I wasn't going to be rich! REUBEN. Hush, hush ! don't blaspheme, my dear, don't deny Mammon he's the God of the world, Lina. (shows a coin] All bow to him they all bow to his priest crawl and worship, and 1 iss their shoes, (holding up his own foot] Here's a shoe to kiss ! But they do kiss, ay, even when it kicks them. Our forefathers worshipped the Golden Calf; we've kept up their faith, and we've taught it to the Christians. Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 37 LINA. Hush, papa, hush ! I cannot bear to hear you talk so ; to see you look so. Let me stay as I am, quiet and happy with you, out of this world, which you know- only to despise. REUBEN. (B.C., seated} " Familiarity breeds contempt 1" Trite copy-book wisdom. But despise or not, we're in the world, and must use it, or be used by it. I use it, Lina, and you must use it too. Money, beauty, and rank are its three estates its King, Lords, and Commons. The first two are yours the third shall be, if all goes well! LINA. Rank ! oh, shall I ever be a great lady ? How delightful ! But then, I should be separated from you. REUBEN. What ! you think I'm not quite a figure for the West End, eh ? Never fear ! a million is always wel- come, whatever the cut of its coat. The House of Lords is very civil to Reuben Goldsched, especially those of them who are in his books ! I have but to choose thee a father-in-law among a score of out-at-elbow peers. They'd jump at thee like a fish at a false fly all for the gold binding and fine feathers. Yes, my dear Lina shall be a great lady, and as she rolls in her carnage, who will mark the mud it splashes on her old father's rusty gaber- dine ? They know what's in the pockets, my dear they know what's in the pockets. LINA. And so I'm to be bought and sold, am I, papa ? REUBEN. Wives are quoted in the market like other stock, my dear. The matrimonial ten per cents, is a favourite investment with the poorer nobility. Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E. LINA rises, DAVID. The Hon. Charles Featherstone, sir. REUBEN, (rises') Shew him into the library ! Exit DAYID, L. D. 2 E. Here's one you can have if you like him, Lina a Lord of the Treasury he'll be an earl, some day a marquis, perhaps, if he had my gold to help him. LINA. He won't keep you long, I hope, papa ? REUBEN. As long as I'll let him suck my brains. Ho comes from the Chancellor of the Exchequer for my advice about the next loan, may be, or the Commander-in- D 58 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. Chief's bills If Lacquer stein's have only operated ! They shall redeem the bills at par and for the gold they shall pay what I like to ask them. Exit REUBEN, L. D. 2 E. LINA. Gold ! gold ! gold ! always gold ! Poor papa, he has bought and sold till he forgets there's anything in the world but buying and selling. No, my heart shan't go to the highest bidder. Oh dear ! if he guessed it had gone already, and to one who hadn't a penny to bid for it that it was given away. Poor Victor ! he is too honour- able to breathe a word of love he, the poor music- master I, the millionaire's daughter. But he loves me, I know he does feel it in the thrill that runs from hand to hand when our fingers meet upon the keys feel it in my heart that beats in time with his ; in our happiness when we are together in my longing when we are separated. Oh, how I hate Thursdays ! How I should like to have lessons every day of the week ! He'll come to-morrow. How long the time seems till then ? Enter DAVID, L. 2 E. DAVID. Mr. Victor, Miss Lina. (she starts} Enter VICTOR, L. 2 E. VICTOR. (L.) It is your birthday, Miss Goldsched. I could not resist the desire to wish you many happy returns of the day. I have a lesson to give at Mrs. Markham's close by. LINA. (R. ) How did you know it was my birthday, Mr. Victor ? VICTOR. You told me the date last year. Did you think I should forget it ? May you be very happy, mademoiselle as happy as the good wishes of those who love you would have you be. LINA. Oh, nobody loves me particularly that I know of, except dear papa. VICTOR. And all the friendless you have befriended, all the sad hearts you have made happy ? There are more praying for you to-day than you know of. LINA. It is very pleasant to think that. VICTOR. I've brought my little present, too, after our Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 39 continental fashion, you know. I may offer it without offence, I hope ? It is only this bunch of violets, gathered as I came along. LINA. (taking them] I shall prize it so much. I think I never smelt violets so fragrant they'll perfume my new desk. Look, papa's present to me ; is it not charming ? (shoioing desk. VICTOR, (looking at the desk) Beautiful indeed ! Good heavens ! These arms ! This portrait ! LINA. What's the matter ? VICTOR. For mercy's sake, how did you come by this ? LINA. Papa bought it for me from an old curiosity shop in Wardour-street. The man told me it came from the sale of the widow of General Neuwinger. VICTOR. The same who commanded on the Rhine in 1 792. Oh, strange play of chance. Yes, our family arms my poor mother's portrait ! LINA. Your mother ! Was this your mother ? How beautiful she must have been ! VICTOR. And how unhappy ! LINA. But this looks like a lady of rank ; the arms are surmounted by a coronet ? VICTOR. And I a poor and nameless music-master ! You wonder what should be in common with me and these. You have surprised half my secret, Miss Goldsched you have a right to know it all. My father, the Marquis de St. Cast, was compromised with the rest of his order in the Revolution, and forced to fly from Paris with my mother and myself, then an infant. On his way to join the army of the princes, he was separated from us in Alsace, and we never saw him again. LINA. Alas ! VICTOR. My mother received one letter announcing his arrival in Frankfort. It was the last. He must have been murdered there by the revolutionary bands, who then occupied the Rhine. I was too young to share my mother's agony. She died her suffering unpitied her rank unknown it would have been death to both of us to reveal it died, leaving me to the care of the poor people who closed her eyes, but who she dared not trust with her name died, leaving her infant child nothing but 40 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. her blessing and a desk the counterpart of this but with my father's portrait upon the plaque. I grew up a peasant among peasants. A good canon of the Cathedral of Strasbourg, forced to turn music-master for his bread, taught me the art by which I have lived till now, too proud to link a noble name with poverty and dependence. LIN A. But you knew your rank ? VICTOK. I learnt it by an accident. In a secret drawer of the desk, my mother left a short record of the story I have told you ; but she dared not reveal even the existence of that record as a legacy to her infant son. It was not till I had grown to manhood, that one day making some repairs in the desk, I discovered the secret drawer, and with it the mystery of my birth my parent's miserable fate. LIN A. Strange chance, indeed ! VICTOK. f opening the deskj Yes, it is the same the same in every point Look, here was the spring, (touches a spring the secret drawer opens] LINA. Ah ! there is a secret drawer in this desk, too ! Oh, how delightful ! (tries to pull it out} It resists ! VICTOR. The wood has swelled from damp and neglect. Now you have my secret, you will keep it, will you not ? LINA. But why not claim your rank ? VICTOK. From the usurper, who now reigns in France ? Never ! Besides, what would be the use ? Our estates were sold as national property. What my father could collect of ready money he had with him when he disappeared. No, what I may be, I will be by my own making. If ever I earn a name, I may avow the rank to which, then, I shall owe nothing. Poor men have their pride, Miss Gold- sched, though the rich can seldom understand it. LINA. Oh, Monsieur Victor, believe me, I feel the nobleness of yours. But, however, am I to take my lessons in future from the Marquis de St. Cast ? VICTOR. For you he will always be the poor music- master. LINA. And my friend, by virtue of the secret that is now between us. (offering her hand) VICTOR. Did it need that to give me the title ? But I forget my lesson at the Markham's. I have other pupils beside Miss Goldsched, you know. Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 41 LINA. Or your teaching would be a poor livelihood. I will not detain you. Mrs. Markham's a very imperious lady, and the Marquis de St. Cast must not expose himself to a scolding. But you'll come early to-morrow ? there's Dussek's Concerto, which I've been practising so hard to please you. VICTOR. Am I often behind my time here ? I, the rest of whose day is brighter for your smile sunnier for your words of sympathy. It would be strange indeed if I were not quick to come, and slow to depart, (checking himself] Forgive me. I have no right to speak thus to you, Miss Goldsched. LINA. No. Call me Lina. VICTOR. I dare not. It was the thought of my empty rank so strangely revived in me by this desk that made me forget myself. Let us both dismiss it from our minds. The madness is past now. (tabes her hand and kisses it} Heaven bless you. Exit i. D. 2 E. LINA. He loves me, and he is a marquis. If papa will make me a great lady, why not a French as well as an English one ? Victor would not seek me for gold, no more than I loved him for the title I never knew of till now. This dear desk how I love it now. Victor must have it I longed to offer it to him. Shall I ask papa's leave ? if I do, I must betray Victor's secret. Let me think how I can manage it. Re-enter REUBEN, i,. D. 2 E. REUBEN. So ! the Honourable Charles is gone, a wiser man than he came, by ten minutes of Reuben Goldsched' s advice. I shall end by getting the fellow a reputation for finance. Well, he shall pay me for it, one day. Still playing with thy present, Lina ? LINA. I like it more than ever oh, so much more look, its full of mysteries. There's a secret drawer I have discovered. REUBEN. Ah, a secret drawer! let me see, let me see. Bank notes have been found in such hiding nooks before now. (he tries to open if) It's stiff ! LINA. The damp, perhaps. REUBEN. No, something sticks between the drawer and 42 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. the side so; let me manage it gently. Now, Lina, what shall it be ? a bank note for a thousand ? LINA. Oh ! I hope it is. Mind, whatever is found is mine, (aside) I could send it to Victor. REUBEN. So ! (drawing out drawer) As I suspected a paper, (unfolding paper) LINA. What is it ? REUBEN. A blank ! my poor child sorry to disappoint thee. LINA. Oh, I was so excited ; and it's a yellow, musty scrap of paper, after all. (throws it down aside) I'll go and write my note to Victor, to accompany the desk. (sits at table I/., at back, and writes. Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E. DAVID. Mr. Lacquerstein ! REUBEN. Our broker, under the rose ? I'll see him. Enter LACQUEESTEIN, agitated, L. D. 2 E. Exit DAVID, L. D. 2 E. Well, Lacquerstein ! LACQUEB. (L.) I passed your messsenger on the road, Mr. Goldsched. Excuse my agitation. REUBEN. (R.) Be cool, man be cool you see I'm cool, (takes him forward) Don't frighten the girl ! what's the matter ? LACQUER. A fall of two per cent, in Navy fives within the last hour. We had your instructions to buy 200,000 when they touched 93. We've got the stock, but we can't find the money. REUBEN. Well, the broker is liable, you know, Lacquerstein. LACQUER. Good heavens ! Mr. Goldsched, you don't mean to say you'd leave us to bear the loss ? We can't do it, sir we can't do it. REUBEN. Don't be alarmed, my dear, I was only laughing at you. (going to his strong box) Here's 60,000 in Indian stock, and bills for the rest. LACQUER, (taking the securities eagerly) Ah, I knew I might rely on you, for all the reports in the Court. REUBEN. What, they say that Reuben Goldsched has Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 43 overbought that he can't stand the fall, eh, Lacquerstein ? LACQUER. Well, they don't scruple to say you are shaky, sir. REUBEN Take all the stock the jobbers offer you on my account, Lacquerstein, and let them know you're operating for Reuben Goldsched. By-the-bye, Jonadab told you I wanted all the gold you could lay hands on. LACQUER. We've bought every guinea in the market, Mr. Goldsched, on your account. REUBEN. How much? LACQUER. Close on 200,000. REUBEN, (writing} Here's my bill three days after sight. LACQUER. All right ! that's as good as money still, Mr. Goldsched. REUBEN. Better, for it won't break down your hackney coach horses. You saw my messenger, you said ? LACQUER. I passed him on the Wandsworth Road, at full gallop. Good-by, Mr. Goldsched, there's no need to tell you to keep your heart up. REUBEN. No, Lacquerstein, my heart is in the right place. I don't carry it where you did when you came in just now. LACQUER. Where's that, Mr. Goldsched ! REUBEN. In your mouth, my dear ; take care it doesn't leap out some day and do you a mischief. Exit LACQUERSTEIN, L. D. 2 E. REUBEN. Ha, ha, ha ! (rubbing his hands} This is life ! this warms a man ! A lee-shore the wind dead on it shoal water within half a cable's length and to feel you've a good ship under you, and a stout heart at the helm. Yes, I shall weather the breakers still, if my canvas holds. It's getting shorter than I could wish. (going to lock his strong box. LINA. And this you call giving me a day from business. (going up to him) Don't lock up that horrid box till I've looked into it. What are all these papers ? REUBEN. Bills securities the paper wings that help money to fly about the world. It was our people invented them, Lina. I wish they could make more of them sometimes. 44 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. LINA. And these glittering heaps REUBEN. Gold, Lina gold of all countries and coinages doubloons pillar dollars spade guineas louis d'or Napoleons. The pretty goldfinches they all fly London way, Lina. Dip thy hand in, child isn't it pleasant ? I love to feel their smooth, hard, glossy faces under my fingers, fplunyes in his hand, and lets a stream of coin flow through his fingers. LINA. (taking a piece] So these are Louis d'ors, are they ? What the French coined before the revolution ? REUBEN. Yes. Let me see one moment, dear, how I stand after this payment to Lacquerstein. (he sits B. and turns over securities from the box. LINA. (coming forward} If I could slily put a rouleau of these into the secret drawer Victor might find them and think they had been left there by his father. He is so poor. Oh, its a capital idea ! Papa, I want twenty of these, please. REUBEN. Twenty Louis d'ors, my dear? what for ? LINA. For a whim I have. I suppose I may have a whim on my birthday. REUBEN. Fifty, if it give thee pleasure. It will be all thine own one day. Here they are, the pretty dears. (sighs') It's hard to part us, Lina, when I love them so well, (counts them out.} LINA. But you love me a great deal better, I hope. Thank you, papa ; and now I'll count 'em over for myself, like my own father's child, (goes to table, L.) Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E. DAVID. A messenger from the office. ( presents list] REUBEN, (rises} Ha, now the list the list, (seizes list from DAVID) Down, down, down all falling and the note from Manasseh ? (DAVID gives note REUBEN reads} " Everything falling. Four brokers declared Meyers stopped payment Glynn's decline further advances no securities available to cover last operations as per order. Must have 40,000 by return to meet immediate de- mands." Ha, this looks serious ! Two o'clock! another hour of this, and Reuben Goldsched figures in the Gazette, a broken merchant ! I must draw on Lyons his name is Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 45 still good, thanks to my propping, (sits B., tvrites, and seals note) To the messenger as fast as his horses can carry him. Exit DAVID, L. D. 2 E. (rises] Oh, for the rise the rise ! when will it come ? Let me see, what have we still available ? I won't sell on a falling market it would be ruin. And yet how to carry on ? How how, you fool ? Why, by showing a bold front to fortune. Curse her ! she is a woman, and favours the fearless. I will hold on, while I can raise a shilling, fpaces up and down, and pauses as he comes near LINA, who is trying to put up the Louis d'ors in a rouleau, and cannot manage it) Clumsy little fingers ! They are not so used to gold as mine are. Let me help thee see (goes up to table, L., makes up a rouleau] This we call a rouleau these are the wheels the heavy Christian traffic lumbered along with, till we taught 'em paper. And now what wilt do with it ? LINA. (seated, c.) Shall I tell you? I am going to give it away. REUBEN. (L.) Without my leave ? LINA. Oh, I'll ask your leave that is, if you'll promise to grant it. REUBEN. I promise. Who is it for? (sits, L.) LINA. I'm going to give it to Monsieur Victor. REUBEN. Eh ? I paid him for his lessons in advance. LINA. Oh, but this isn't payment at all. This is in- tended for a surprise and I want to give him my pretty desk too. REUBEN. My birth-day present to thee nay ! LINA. Oh, but he has a right to it. Only think it turns out to have belonged to his father he recognised the arms, the portrait of his mother upon it, who died when he was just old enough to remember her. She left him its exact counterpart. REUBEN. Pshaw ! it was easy to say all this. LINA. He always speaks the truth. Besides, he proved it by showing me the spring that opens the secret drawer. His mother's portrait, papa. I'm sure you'd think it very cruel if years and years hence I came upon mamma's picture yonder in another person's possession, and it wasn't given to me. 46 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. REUBEN. (L.) True, true a mother's portrait is very precious. LINA. (K. c.) Then I may give it to him. REUBEN. Yes. LINA. Thank you so much and then I mean to pop this rouleau into the secret drawer. Luckily he didn't open it. Don't you see, that's why I chose Louis d'ors ; he'll think some of his family put 'em there. If he asks any questions, I'll say / didn't. REUBEN. What a fib ? LINA. Not a bit of it. I won't put 'em there you shall. There isn't that a clever way of doing a thing and not doing it at the same time ! REUBEN. Ha, ha, ha ! Clever mighty clever. But not clever enough neither, (breaks rouleau) Look, the coins bear the date of 1787 and 1788, and you had put them up in a piece of paper, (showing the paper at the candle) with the date of 1813. A clever rogue, truly a mighty clever rogue ! LINA. Oh dear, oh dear ! I never thought of that. REUBEN. The forgeries of just such clever rogues as thou art have been found out before now by the same blunder. Always examine the watermark of a bank note, my dear, and the maker's date on a piece of paper. LINA. But wherever are we to find a piece of paper old enough ? REUBEN. Here's this scrap from the drawer it looks yellow and musty enough for the first bill of exchange. Foreign paper, too ! Let's see the mark on this, (he holds it to the candle) There's a date can't your young eyes make it out ? LINA. 1 7 9 1 ; that'll do. But look, papa, here are letters on it that wern't there just now queer brown letters. I can make them out. " P a y " REUBEN. Let me see. Ah, written on with sympa- thetic ink requires heat to bring it out. LINA. More mysteries ! Oh, this delightful desk ! It's like the things in the Arabian Nights. Hold it to the fire, papa, while I get the desk. REUBEN, (holds it to jire, L., then reads) " Received this day the sum of two hundred thousand thalers " My Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 47 own hand writing ! (hastily puts it to Jire again, looks at it, then reads] My own receipt of October 22nd, 1792, to the Marquis de St. Cast for two hundred thousand thalers ! (hastily crushes it in his hand. LIN A. (coming back with desk] Well, what is it, papa ? REUBEN. Only an old receipt, my dear, of no moment now ; they're dead that it concerns all dead long since. (tears part of paper off] I'm curious in such inks, dear often use them. I'll keep this written part to test the composition of it. Here's enough of the paper left blank for thy purpose, (tears off blank and puts up the Louis d'ors] LINA. (B. c.) See here's the spring, papa, (touches spring] Pop, out flies drawer ! Now in with the rouleau ! How cunningly it is hidden in the woodwork. REUBEN. (L.) You said the desk belonged to this Victor's father. LINA. Yes who disappeared in 1 792 at Frankfort. His poor wife, Victor's mother, never saw him after that ; she died in Alsace. REUBEN. Did he tell thee his father's name ? LINA. Yes, but it's a secret. And yet I don't think I ought to keep it from you we were never to have any secrets you know yes, I'll tell you. His father was called the Marquis de St. Cast. He's marquis now, but has never assumed the title, which he only discovered long long after his mother's death. REUBEN. Strange strange chance ! The hand of Jehovah is in it. (crosses to R.) LINA. (L. c.) What chance, papa ? REUBEN. (R.) Eh? (confused] The chance that brings this young man and this desk together, after so many years. LINA. Doesn't that prove we ought to give it him, papa? REUBEN. Yes yes LINA. And now I'll take it to David, and get him to pack it neatly up and take it to Mr. Victor. He's at Mrs. Markham's, just across the common. Oh, I do be- lieve I'm the happiest girl alive! Aud I have the very kindest, and most generous papa. Kisses him, and runs off with desk, L. D. 2 E. 48 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act. 2. REUBEN, (alone) Kind, generous ! Words! The dead man's heir come to light after all these years and we sought and sought and could not find him when restitu- tion would have been easy, when I had nothing to lose, when she was with me and he comes now to claim his debt now, when every farthing I have is wanted for to-day's desperate needs now, when my means hang on the chances of an hour ! He must wait wait till I see how this day's market leaves me afloat or aground, a shattered, stranded wreck ! I can pay him to-morrow, if if? Who knows if to-morrow I shall he master of as many shillings as he wants pounds ? What proof of his story ? That accursed desk ! The marquis had some such toy in his hand, though I took no note of it. lie must have put away the receipt in that drawer. Well, suppose this is the Marquis of St. Cast what proof of my debt to him ? Here, here, on this scrap of paper revealed by the fire that can destroy as easily as it has discovered. If I burnt it, who'd be wiser who'd be worse ? yes, I will. (goes towards fire) Curse the paper ! (looks at it] I knew it at once yet I haven't even brought out my own signature. ' Let me see it see it in full, (holds receipt to fire again] Ha ! there it is, sure enough. Any broker on change would swear to it ; and what's this ? " Witnessed Lina Goldsched." My Lina's own trembling characters, (kisses them} No, I can't burn these, I can't I can't ! Oh, how glad you would have been, my blessed one, to see this day! She spoke of it on her death bed of that widow and orphan, and bade me never rest till I found them out. I swore again to her then, as I swore that 22nd of October. I have found the orphan, and to keep my oath is ruin ! Oh, what shall I do ? You see me, you hear me, Lina! Look down and give me strength to conquer in this sore struggle ! Lina, Lina help me, help me ! (he falls on his knees before the portrait, R., stretching out his arms towards it} Eh ? Tell all to our child ! I will, I will. She shall be to me what thou woulds't have been my better angel ! Ha ! here she comes ! Re-enter LINA, L. D. 2 E. LINA. Well, papa, David has gone with the desk but what's the matter ? you are pale, trembling ! I'm sure Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 40 you've been exciting yourself too much. How I do hate these office messengers there's another just come. REUBEN, (rushing to the door) Where ? I must see him this instant ! Enter DAVID, L. D. 2 E., with list and note. LINA. And this is the happiness of riches ! (REUBEN takes list and note from DAVID, which he tears open with trembling hands) Exit DAVID, L. D. 2 E. REUBEN. (K.) Now, now. Ha ! a rise in bank stock no, down again in half hour ! Continued fall in all the rest ! And Jonadab's note \ (reads') " Lyons, and Meyer, in immediate need of 35,000, or must suspend." What? Lyons, and Meyer ! we're in advance to them, with to-day's accommodation, 500,000 besides our paper backed by them to nearly the same amount. Their ruin is mine ! 35,000 ? It will exhaust every available security I can command ! Yet it must be done Jehovah strengthen me ! (goes to chest and takes out papers, K.) Lina, listen ! that paper was not all legible just now. I have brought it all out since you left me. Read it ! LINA. (reads') " Received this day of the Marquis de St. Cast " Victor's father ! " the sum of 200,000 thalers, payable on demand Reuben Goldsched ! " Your name, papa ! REUBEN. Read on ! LINA. ( continues ) "October 22nd, 1792 witnessed, Lina Goldsched ! " My mother ! REUBEN. Yes, she witnessed it ! It was the owner of that desk left that sum in my hands. LINA. And never claimed it ? REUBEN. He was murdered. LINA. Father ! (horror stricken") REUBEN. By his countrymen the French soldiers. LINA. Then this money is Victor's ! REUBEN. If he be Marquis de St. Cast. LINA. Oh, how delightful ! Then he can resume hi rank at last a noble among nobles ! Oh, I am so glad, BO hap (she pauses and bursts into tears} REUBEN. What is this Lina ? LINA. Pardon me, but if you knew how good he is, E 50 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. how uncomplaining, how he has borne poverty and low estate how he will adorn rank and riches ? REUBEN. Lina, you love this man ? (she turns away her head] Does he love you? LINA. He never told me so. REUBEN. Pshaw! It needs no telling ! you think he does? LINA. Yes. REUBEN. And not my gold ? LINA. Oh, no. no, no! REUBEN. That's well for if he marries you, he marries a beggar. LINA. A beggar ? Ah, I see, you will cast me off ! Well, he will take me to his heart, though I were penniless. REUBEN. You think so ? You shall see ! Look, here are 30,000. (makes a packet of securities and gives them to her} Send them to him. LINA. Oh, how joyfully ! Thanks, thanks ! I will not lose a moment, (going} REUBEN. Stop. Before you do so, it is right you should know that this which makes him rich, makes me a ruined man. LINA. Father! REUBEN. It is the naked truth. This sum withdrawn from my operations at this moment, wrecks me, breaks me, beggars me ! Is that plain speaking, girl, or must I repeat it ? LINA. Take it back, father ! take it back ! REUBEN. To fling it where hundreds of thousands have been swallowed up already ? LINA. (r.) You can pay him afterwards. REUBEN. When ? how ? Out of my dividend of two pence in the pound ? I tell you next week may see me in the Gazette, a broken man. LINA. Then if you use it ? REUBEN. I defraud your lover. LINA. And if he takes it ? REUBEN. He ruins your father ! Choose girl, choose between the two. LINA. No, no, father, choose you. I have no power, no knowledge, Father, I dare not choose ! Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 51 REUBEN, (takes her hand} Girl, your mother would have chosen. Pray that her spirit may guide you ! LINA. Oh, father, I cannot pray, my brain burns, I shall oie pray you, father, pray you for both of us. (sinking on her knees at his feet} REUBEN. I have prayed I have found the strength that comes with praying. Enter DAVID, i. DAVID, (announcing} Mr. Victor ! LINA. (springs up and crosses to B.) Ha! Enter VICTOR. L., with desk in his hand. Exit DAVID, L- VICTOR. (L.) Mr. Goldsched, Miss Lina, I could not go without thanking you for this precious gift. Perhaps you did not know, sir, it was my father's It bears my mother's portrait. She has given it to me ! REUBEN, (c.) With all my heart ! Have you nothing to say, Lina, to Monsieur Victor ? LINA. (R., after an effort] I cannot speak, VICTOR. Adieu, sir ! Good bye, Miss Goldsched ; thanks, thanks ! (he is going, L.) REUBEN. Stay, young gentleman ! it seems you are the Marquis de St. Cast ? VICTOR. She has betrayed my secret ! REUBEN. No, this desk has, and it has betrayed another secret this receipt! Read it. (gives receipt to VICTOR) Here are the securities for the 30,000 to which that paper entitles you. We'll settle about the interest another time. VICTOR. Is it possible ! (places desk on table, ~L.J Then it was in your hands REUBEN. Your father deposited his fortune ? Yes ! (a slight pause] VICTOR. At last I may resume my name and rank be- fore all the world. Oh, sir, crown this gift with another, not a debt, but a blessing. Let me share with your daughter the fortune thus wondrously restored ! I shall not be so rich a son-in-law as you might wish REUBEN. But a richer one than I have any right to, I am a ruined man. VICTOR. Ruined! You? LINA. (coming down, R.) Yes, Victor, beggared by this 52 PAYABLE ON DEMAND. Act 2. act of restitution. That sum would have saved him, would have carried him through a great and terrible danger that, without it, drags him down to ruin ! (clinging to REUBEN) VICTOR. Beggar or millionaire, sir, will you have me for a son-in-law ? REUBEN. What ? you would take her without a penny ? ^ine will be no common ruin VICTOR. Yes, a thousand times, yes ! REUBEN. Ha ! I said I would test him, Lina he is tested, he stands the test take her boy, take her ! It's almost worth ruin to discover a heart like yours but you'll have her father on your hands too I'm an old man, and a penniless 'twill not be for long ; I have lived my life, (feebly crosses to R.y VICTOR. Nay, sir, you are hale and strong this cloud may pass. Will you take me for your partner as well as son- in-law ? This money is mine ! (crosses to REUBEN) I place it in your hands It will fructify in them, I know it will ! (crosses back to L.) RETTBEN. (with a sudden return of energy] What ! you trust me with it, to play with ? Then all is not lost yet. (puts up securities, and going to table R., rings bell furiously} There's two hours to the closing of the Exchange. Enter DAVID, L., a basket in his hand he crosses to REUBEN, R. This to the messenger, (giving letter} Let him drive as if the devil were on the coach box. Now why do you wait ? DAVID. (R. c.) There's a rough looking man, sir, in the hall, has brought this basket, with his compliments he says it's a pigeon. REUBEN, (seizing the basket] Ha ! one of Schwartzchild's birds at last ! (takes dead pigeon from basket, and tears a paper from under its wing reading} April 4th twelve o'clock. The Allies are in Paris Napoleon has abdicated at Fontainebleu ! Huzza, huzza ! Saved, saved ! LINA. (L. c.) He's mad ! REUBEN. Mad ? Ha, ha, ha ! Mad ! (sits at table, B., writes furiously , reading as he writes} Now, Jonadab now, Lacquerstein now, Lyons employ a dozen brokers buy buy buy anything and everything clean out Sc. 1. PAYABLE ON DEMAND. 53 the jobbers sweep the market bare ! This to the mes- senger ! (rises, and comes forward') Exit DAVID, L., with letters. Now comes the rise and with it back come my thousands my tens of thousands ! Before this time to-morrow I shall be worth a million ! Marquis de St. Cast, you came in good time you shall share my winnings. Before this news can reach England by courier to-morrow afternoon, Reuben Goldsched will hold all the jobbers have to offer ! Those who have engaged to deliver stock must come to him. All are sellers to-day, and Reuben the only buyer ! To-morrow all will be buyers, and Reuben the only seller ! (kisses the pigeon) Oh, you dear bird ! You lovely bird ! Noah's dove came with the olive branch in her beak you bring it under your wing ! I can't bring you to life again but I'll have you stuffed with bank notes, and set in a golden case and Lina shall have you for a birthday present ! LINA. Instead of the desk REUBEN. That nearly cost thec a father ! LINA. (c.) But gained me a husband. VICTOR. (L.) And me an angel ! REUBEN. (R.) By the bye (remembering, crosses c.,to table, and opening the secret drawer of desk, takes out the rouleau} This may as well go back to my strong box LINA. (R.) Ha ! robbery! Victor's twenty Louis d'ors! REUBEN, (c.) You shall give him kisses instead, at a franc a piece twenty louie, twenty-five kisses to the louis she owes you five hundred kisses young man ! LINA. Five hundred kisses ? VICTOR. Payable on demand ! LINA. So love debts should be, and so notes of hand! (to AUDIENCE, imitating action of applause] REUBEN (to AUDIENCE) You'd better pay, or with a Jew for claimant, You'll find the debt grow by deferring payment! Come, I don't mind if you accept my bill, Still to renew, and keep it running still ; Knowing that when to it you've set your hand, I still shall find it PAYABLE ON DEMAND. LINA. REUBEN. VICTOR. R. CURTAIN. &. Lacy v -Acting Edition oi Plays, 6d. each Or in Volumes, , at 7*. eacA, Post free. VOLUME 1. 57 Angelo 118 Betsy Baker 175 Whitebait atGret 1 Time Tries All 58 Mar v Queen of Scots 119 Gotobed Tom wich [Busin< ' 2 Practical Man 59 Lovers' Quarrels 120 Jenkinses 76 Pretty Piece o 8 Soldier's Progress 60 Carpenter of Rouen VOLUME 9. 77 Bachelor of Art! 4 Reigning Favourite 5 Swiss Cottage 6 Ladder of Love VOLUME 5. fil Pauline 62 Cool as a Cucumber 121 Phenomenon in a Smock Frock 122 HarlequinHudibras 78 Uncle Tom's Cal 79 Miller of Derw< 80 Pet of the Publ 7 Daughter 8 Two Queens 9 How do you Manage? 10 Comfortable Service 63 Hopeless Passion 64 Game of Speculation 65 Thumping Legacy (<6 Thetis and Peleus 123 Cherry 124 Loan of a Lover 125 Good Woman in the Wood VOLUME IS. 181 To Parents & Gu dians [Haf. 182 How to make Ho: 11 Passing Cloud 07 Guardian Angel 126 Leo the Terrible 83 Hope of theFatn 12 Creole, or Love's 68 Two Bonnycastles 127 Bold Dragoons 84 Cure for Love Fetters My Wife's Daughter 80 Husband of my 87 King of the Alps 8S Ganem 89 Taking by Storm 90 Very Suspicious 143 Elopements in High Life, is. 144 Desperate Game 145 Uncle Crotchet 199 No. 1, Round t Corner [Ci 200 Storm in "a Tea 201 Jacobite (The) Heart VOLUME 7. ^ L1C Ladies at Home 202 MarriedUn-marri VOLUME 3. 91 Left the Stage 147 Camlet Travestie 203 Broken Toys 31 Serve Him Right 92 Rose of Ettrick Vale 148 A. S. S. 204Louise deLignerol 32 I'll be your Second 93 Unwarrantable In- 149 Fast Train [Pail 265 Moustache Moi 83 II arlequin Alfred the trusion 150 Maid with Milking ment [Coujui Great [nogluie 94 Binks the Bagman VOLUME 11. 206 'Twould Puzzle 4 Harlequin O'Do- 95 Miller of Whetstone 151 Trying it on 207 Deaf as a Post 35 Prince Dorus \ din 96 " Matrimonial," &c. 152 Gold 208 To Oblige Benso 36 Dayafter theWed- 97 Book the Third, 153 Mob Cap 209 Follies of a Nigh :