"Exactly so."
"Sir! Do you mean to say that you _know_ she was not lost?"
"Precisely so."
"By ----! Sir, you have been making a merit of this very thing."
"True, but policy, policy! You will recollect you were not in a particularly amiable mood when I had the honor to introduce myself this morning. It was necessary to conciliate you, and my plan succeeded admirably. Besides, I blowed up the steamer with the intention of serving you, and I ought to have the credit of my good intentions!"
"And a pretty mess you have made of it!"
"Did the best that could be done, under the circ.u.mstances."
"The game is up! I may as well hang myself, at once."
"The very worst thing you could possibly do. A long life of happiness and usefulness is yet before you, provided you follow my advice."
"Your advice!" sneered Jaspar.
"I shall have the pleasure of convincing you that my advice will be the best that could possibly be given to a man in your condition."
"The girl is alive, is she?" muttered Jaspar, heedless of the smooth words of his companion.
"Alive and well; and, moreover, is close at hand."
"The devil, she is! And you have been dallying around me all day without opening your mouth."
"But remember, sir, you had another affair on your hands."
"What avail to get that miserable overseer out of the way, when the girl herself is at hand?"
"One thing at a time. That excellent old man, Dr. Franklin, always advised this method. The overseer is safe; now turn we to other matters."
"Well, what shall be done?" said Jaspar, rising suddenly and paying his devoir to the brandy-bottle.
"I will tell you," replied the attorney, rising from his chair and coolly imitating Jaspar"s example at the bottle. Then throwing himself lazily upon the sofa--"I will tell you. The case is not desperate yet.
How much is the amount of the old colonel"s property?"
"How, sir! What mean you?"
"Favor me with an answer," replied the attorney, with admirable _sang-froid_, as he drew from his pocket a cigar-case, and, taking therefrom a cigar, proceeded to light it with a patent vesuvian.
Politely tendering the case to Jaspar, who rudely declined the courtesy, he continued, "It is necessary to our further progress that I have this information."
"Well, perhaps he was worth four or five hundred thousand. What then?"
replied Jaspar, doggedly.
"No more? Surely, you forget. His city property was worth more than double that sum."
"No more, by Heavens!" said Jaspar.
"Then, my dear sir, I fear you are a ruined man."
"Sir!" and Jaspar started bolt upright.
"See if you cannot think of something more," said De Guy, calmly.
"He might possibly have left more."
"Haven"t you the schedule? Pray allow me to look at it;" and the attorney rose and approached the secretary. With the ease of one perfectly at home, and acquainted with every locality, he opened the drawer which contained the business papers of the estate.
"What are you about, sir? You are impudent!"
"Not at all, sir. I wish to satisfy myself that the property is worth more,"--and he commenced fumbling over the contents of the drawer.
"Take your hands out of that drawer, or I will blow your brains out!"
said Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized a pistol from the table.
"Very well," replied the attorney, closing the drawer; "you shall have it as you will. I shall bid you a good-day,"--and he prepared to depart.
"Stay!" said Jaspar, replacing the pistol; "perhaps I can satisfy you, though I cannot see what bearing it has upon the subject."
"A very decided bearing, I should say," replied the attorney, not at all disconcerted by what had happened.
"Perhaps if I had said a million, it were nearer the truth."
"Not a bit. You are still half a million out of the way, at least. Is it not a million and a half?"
"It may be," said Jaspar, hesitating.
"Perhaps two millions."
"No," said Jaspar, decidedly.
"I suspected two was about the figure, but we will call it a million and a half."
"Well, what then?" said Jaspar, impatiently.
"One-half of it would be a very pretty fortune," soliloquized De Guy, loud enough to be heard by his companion.
"No doubt of it," replied Jaspar, with a ghastly smile, which betrayed but little of the terrible agitation that racked him, as he heard these words.
"But, Mr. Dumont, you are not a married man, you know, and one-third of it would be very handsome for you."
"Very comfortable, indeed; and, no doubt, I ought to be very grateful to you for allowing me so much."
"Exactly so. Grat.i.tude is a sentiment worthy of cherishing. The fact is, Mr. Dumont, I intend to marry; and, for a man of my expensive habits, one-half is hardly an adequate share. You are a single man, and not likely to change your condition at present, so that you can have no possible use, either for yourself or for your heirs, for any more than one-third."
"Your calculations are excellent!" said Jaspar, with a withering sneer.
"But suppose I should grumble at your taking the lion"s share?"