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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: he lent at enhanced interest to the quality. Duns and bailiffs
jostled the dukes and marquises whose presence at the Rue
Beaubourg so impressed the wondering neighbours of the facile
grocer.
This aristocratic money-lending proved a hopeless trade; it only
plunged Derues deeper and deeper into the mire of financial
disaster. The noblemen either forgot to pay while they were
alive, or on their death were found to be insolvent. Derues was
driven to ordering goods and merchandise on credit, and selling
them at a lower price for ready money. Victims of this treatment
began to press him seriously for their money or their goods.
A Book of Remarkable Criminals | 
