"Yes, I know him."
"He seems to think himself on excellent terms with you."
"He has charge of my mother"s property."
"You are good at reading faces. I hope you liked the expression on his, as he slunk away just now."
"It was fear--abject fear. Why are you so angry? Why is he so frightened?"
"His nerves, you may have observed, are something of the weakest. He is my attendant genius, my familiar. A word from me, and he will run my errand like a spaniel."
"How could you gain such power over him?" she asked, in great astonishment.
"Magnetism, f.a.n.n.y, magnetism. The effects of the mesmeric fluid are wonderful. See, the polking is over; they are forming a quadrille.
Shall we take our places in the set?"
During the dance, Morton looked for his enemy, but could not discover him till it was over, and he had led his partner to a seat.
"Look," he said, "there is our friend again; in the next room, just beyond the folding doors, talking with Mrs. ---- and Mrs. ----. He seems to have got the better of the shock to his nerves; at least, he stands up manfully against it. Mr. Horace Vinal has a stout heart, and needs nothing but valor, and one other quality, to make a hero. But his face is flushed. I fear he suffers in his health. See, he makes himself very agreeable. Vinal was always famous for his wit. Pardon me a moment; I have a word for my friend"s ear."
f.a.n.n.y Euston looked at him doubtingly.
"Pray, don"t be discomposed. There"s no gunpowder impending. Vinal is not a fighting man; nor am I. What I have to say is altogether pacific, loving, and scriptural."
And pa.s.sing into the adjoining room, he approached Vinal, who no sooner saw the movement, than he showed a manifest uneasiness. His forced animation ceased, his manner became constrained, and while Morton stood near, waiting an opportunity to speak to him, he withdrew to another part of the room. Morton followed, and p.r.o.nounced his name.
Vinal, with pretended unconsciousness, mingled with the crowd. Morton again tried to accost him, and again Vinal moved away. Impatient and exasperated, Morton stepped behind him, touched his shoulder, and whispered in his ear,--
"You fool, do you know your danger? Speyer is looking for you. I saw him this afternoon. He looks as if he needed your charity. You had better be generous with him. He is a tiger, and will be upon you before you know it."
Anger and terror, of which the latter vastly predominated, gave a ghastly look to Vinal"s face, as he turned it towards Morton. But he drew back without a word, and soon left the room.
"Where is Mr. Vinal?" asked the wondering f.a.n.n.y Euston, as her companion returned to her side. The momentary interview had been invisible from where she sat.
"Obeyed the magic word, and vanished. Never doubt again the power of magnetism. Now you may see that the claptrap of the charlatans about the mutual influence of congenial spheres is not quite such trash as one might think. Vinal and I, being congenial spheres, put each other, the one into a pa.s.sion, the other into a fright. But I have a request to you. Whoever knows you, knows, in spite of the libellers, a woman who can keep counsel; and as I am modest in respect to my magnetic gifts, I shall beg it of you, that you will not mention these experiments to any one. Good evening. I have revived to-night an old and valued friendship. If I can help it, it shall not die again."
He took leave of his hostess, wrapped his cloak about him, and walked out into the drizzling night.
CHAPTER LXIII.
Nought"s had, all"s spent, Where our desire is got without content.
"Tis safer to be that which we destroy, Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.--_Macbeth_.
Morton walked the street, on the next day, in a mood less grave than had lately been his wont, but in one of any thing but self-approval.
"It is singular," he thought, "I could never meet her without forgetting myself,--without being betrayed into some absurdity or other. I thought by this time that I had grown wiser, or, at least, was well fenced against that kind of risk. But it is the same now as ever. I was a fool at New Baden, and I was a fool again last night, though after a different fashion. After all, when a fresh breeze comes, why should I not breathe it? when a ray of sun comes, why should I not bask in it? But what impelled me to insult that wretch, who I knew dared not and could not answer me?"
He pondered for a moment, then turned and walked slowly towards Vinal"s place of business.
"Is Mr. Vinal here?" he asked of one of the clerks.
"Yes, sir, he is in that inner room."
"Is any one with him?"
"No, sir." And Morton opened the door and entered.
Vinal sat before a table, on which letters and papers were lying; but he was leaning backward in his chair, with a painfully knit brow, and a face of ghastly paleness. It flushed of a sudden as Morton appeared, and his whole look and mien showed an irrepressible agitation.
Morton closed the door. "Vinal," he said, "you need not fear that I have come with any hostile purpose. On the contrary, I will serve you, if I can. Last night I used words to you which I have since regretted.
I beg you to accept my apology."
Vinal made no reply.
"I saw Speyer in the street last evening, and tried to speak with him, but could not stop him. He can hardly have any other purpose in breaking his oath and coming here again, than to get more money from you. Has he been to you?"
Still Vinal was silent.
"I think," continued Morton, "that you cannot fail to see my motive. I wish to keep him from you, not on your account, but on your wife"s. If you let him, he will torment you to your death. Have you seen him since last evening?"
Vinal inclined his head.
"Where is he now?"
"I don"t know."
"Has he left the city?"
"I don"t know. I suppose so."
"And you gave him money?"
Vinal was silent again. Morton took his silence for a.s.sent.
"When he comes again, tell me of it, and let me speak to him. Possibly I may find means to rid you of him. Meantime remember this. He has given your letter up to me. He has no proofs to show against you, unless he has other letters of yours;--is that the case?"
Vinal shook his head.
"Then, if he proclaims you, his word will not be taken, unless I sustain it; and I shall keep silent unless you give me some new cause to speak. I do not see that he can harm you much without my help; so give him no more money, and set him at defiance."
Morton left the room; but his words had brought no relief to the wretched Vinal. Speyer had shown him his letter, and told him the artifice by which he had kept it, and palmed off a counterfeit on Morton. He felt himself at the mercy of a miscreant as rapacious, fierce, and pitiless, as a wolverene dropping on its prey.