CHAPTER XXII.
MISS DEBORAH'S EYES ARE OPENED.
Aunt Deborah felt that she had done a good stroke of business.

She had lent Ferdinand four hundred and fifty dollars, and received in return a note for five hundred and fifty, secured by a diamond ring worth even more.

She plumed herself on her shrewdness, though at times she felt a little twinge at the idea of the exorbitant interest which she had exacted from so near a relative.
"But he said the money was worth that to him," she said to herself in extenuation, "and he's goin' to get two thousand dollars a year.

I didn't want to lend the money, I'd rather have had it in the savings bank, but I did it to obleege him." By such casuistry Aunt Deborah quieted her conscience, and carefully put the ring away among her bonds and mortgages.
"Who'd think a little ring like that should be worth so much ?" she said to herself.

"It's clear waste of money.