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Here, Sir; this will refresh you in the mean time, and your repast will be ready presently.

Ha, ha, ha! what a mountebank world we live in, full of inconsistencies: every body eagerly running after some wild delusion or other! To think, now, that a sober philosopher like Van Maurice should start up from his books, his globes, and compass, to put a foolish kinsman out of the world, and all for the enriching of Simon Kranzberg, whom he likes as much as thou dost a bit of musty stock-fish. By my faith, it is some waggish devil that hath tempted him to this imbecility of wickedness.

Yes, master; and the devil will take care of your interest for his own advantage.

But I'll cheat him, too, in the long run.

It must be some clever device, indeed, that cheats him.

I'll give donations to the church; or I'll endow a chapel, and appoint a priest to pray my soul out of purgatory.