I've sold myself to a demon, who, in
consideration of my services--of my body and soul--promised to keep his
talons from my poor Lucy. He discovered her mistake; and he threatened
to let the whole world know, to tell you all, if I did not bind myself
to do his villainous work. I have done it for years. I have endured
shame and agony unspeakable, that my darling's secret might be safe. I
have been his tool and his scapegoat. I, an old man, on my way to the
grave, have earned--and rightly earned--the names of usurer and thief.
All this I have done and suffered that he should never blight my child's
happiness by his presence. He has broken the contract. He came down here
that night you went to Richmond, and, with his fiendish ways and
threats, nearly killed her. Well, now his power has gone. Thanks to your
generosity, your forgiveness, Lucy is free, and I am free. Now I take my
turn, and for every tear he has wrung from my darling's eyes, I will
wring a groan from his black heart."
John had listened to him with intense surprise. He knew his
father-in-law was in business in the City; but he did not know that the
business of "Harker's," for which he had a great respect, had anything
to do with moneylending.
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