The jeweller started, and found that in his zeal he had suffered one to approach within sound of his voice unseen.  The other was in a domino also, and so well enveloped as to be effectually concealed.

“What would’st thou, Signor Mask?” demanded the wary Jew.

“A word in friendship and in confidence.—­Thou hast moneys to lend at usury?”

“The question had better be put to the Republic’s treasury!  I have many stones valued much below their weight, and would be glad to put them with some one more lucky than myself who will be able to keep them.”

“Nay, this will not suffice—­thou art known to be abounding in sequins; one of thy race and riches will never refuse a sure loan with securities as certain as the laws of Venice.  A thousand ducats in thy willing hand is no novelty”

“They who call me rich, Signor Mask, are pleased to joke with the unhappy child of a luckless race.  That I might have been above want—­nay, that I am not downright needy, may be true; but when they speak of a thousand ducats, they speak of affairs too weighty for my burdened shoulders.  Were it your pleasure to purchase an amethyst or a ruby, gallant Signore, there might possibly be dealings between us?”

“I have need of gold, old man, and can spare thee jewels myself at need.  My wants are urgent at this moment, and I have little time to lose in words—­name thy conditions.”

“One should have good securities, Signore, to be so peremptory in a matter of money.”

“Thou hast heard that the laws of Venice are not more certain.  A thousand sequins, and that quickly.  Thou shalt settle the usury with thine own conscience.”

Hosea thought that this was giving ample room to the treaty, and he began to listen more seriously.

“Signore,” he said, “a thousand ducats are not picked up at pleasure from the pavement of the great square.  He who would lend them must first earn them with long and patient toil; and he who would borrow——­”

“Waits at thy elbow.”

“Should have a name and countenance well known on the Rialto.”

“Thou lendest on sufficient pledges to masks, careful Hosea, or fame belies thy generosity.”

“A sufficient pledge gives me power to see the way clearly, though the borrower should be as much hidden as those up above.  But here is none forthcoming.  Come to me to-morrow, masked or not, as may suit your own pleasure, for I have no impertinent desire to pry into any man’s secrets beyond what a regard to my own interests requires, and I will look into my coffers; though those of no heir-apparent in Venice can be emptier.”

“My necessities are too urgent to brook delay.  Hast thou the gold, on condition of naming thine own usury?”

“With sufficient pledges, in stones of price, I might rake together the sum among our dispersed people, Signore.  But he who goes on the island to borrow, as I shall be obliged to do, should be able to satisfy all doubts concerning the payment.”