“Yes, Miss Henrietta, rely on me. I have as much reason to curse Sarah
Brandon as you have, and perhaps I hate her more. Rely on me; for my
hatred has now been watching and waiting for years, ever anxious to
reach her, and to avenge my sufferings. Yes, for long years I have been
lying in wait, thirsting for vengeance, lost in darkness, but pursuing
her tracks with the unwearied perseverance of the Indian. For the
purpose of finding out who she is, and who her accomplices are,
whence they came, and how they have met to plot together such fearful
crimes,--for that purpose I have walked in the deepest mud, and stirred
up heaps of infamy. But I have found out all. And yet in the whole life
of Sarah Brandon,--a life of theft and murder,--I have till this moment
not found a single fact which would bring her within the reach of the
law, so cunning is her wickedness.”
His face brightened with an air of triumph; and his voice rose high as
he added,--
“But now! This time success seemed to her so sure and so easy, that she
has neglected her usual precautions. Eager to enjoy her millions, and,
in proportion, weary of playing a comedy of love with your father, she
has been too eager. And she is lost if we, on our side, are not also too
eager.
“As to your father, madam, I have my reasons for feeling safe about him.
According to your mother’s marriage contract, and in consequence of
a bequest of a million and a half which were left her by one of her
uncles, your father’s estate is your debtor to the amount of two
millions; and that sum is invested in mortgages on his estates in Anjou.
That sum he cannot touch, even if he is bankrupt. Should he die before
you, that sum remains still yours; but, if you die before him, it goes
to him. Now Sarah has sworn, in her insatiate cupidity, that she will
have these two millions also.”
“Ah,” said Henrietta, “you are right! It is Sarah’s interest that my
father should live; and he will live, therefore, as long as she does not
know whether I am dead or alive, in fact, as long as she does not know
what has become of me.”
“And she must not know that for some time,” chimed in the old man.