“Now, then, Sir?” exclaimed Mr. Raleigh, interrogatively.

“Now, then, Mrs. Heath requests my daughter’s hand for her son, and offers to set off to him, at once, such sum as would constitute his half of her new property upon her decease, and allow him to enter our house as special partner.”

“Ah!”

“This does not look so unreasonable.  Last night he proposed formally to Marguerite, who is still ignorant of these affairs, and she refused him.  I have urged her differently,—­I can do no more than urge,—­and she remains obdurate.  To accumulate misfortunes, we escaped 1857 by a miracle.  We have barely recovered; and now various disasters striking us,—­the loss of the Osprey the first and chief of them,—­we are to-day on the verge of bankruptcy.  Nothing but the entrance of this fortune can save us from ruin.”

“Unfortunate!” said Mr. Raleigh,—­“most unfortunate!  And can I serve you at this point?”

“Not at all, Sir,” said Mr. Laudersdale, with sudden erectness.  “No,—­I have but one hope.  It has seemed to me barely possible that your uncle may have communicated to you events of his early life,—­that you may have heard, that there may have been papers telling of the real fate of Susanne Le Blanc.”

“None that I know of,” said Mr. Raleigh, after a pause.  “My uncle was a very reserved person.  I often imagined that his youth had not been without its passages, something to account for his unvarying depression.  In one letter, indeed, I asked him for such a narration.  He promised to give it to me shortly,—­the next mail, perhaps.  The next mail I received nothing; and after that he made no allusion to the request.”

“Indeed?  Indeed?  I should say,—­pardon me, Mr. Raleigh,—­that your portion of the next mail met with some accident.  Your servants could not explain it?”

“There is Capua, who was major-domo.  We can inquire,” said Mr. Raleigh, with a smile, rising and ringing for that functionary.

On Capua’s appearance, the question was asked, if he had ever secretly detained letter or paper of any kind.

“Lors, massa!  I alwes knew ’twould come to dis!” he replied.  “No, massa, neber!” shaking his head with repeated emphasis.

“I thought you might have met with some accident, Capua,” said his master.

“Axerden be ——­, beg massa’s parden; but such s’picions poison any family’s peace, and make a feller done forgit hisself.”

“Very well,” said Mr. Raleigh, who was made to believe by this vehemence in what at first had seemed a mere fantasy.  “Only remember, that, if you could assure me that any papers had been destroyed, the assurance would be of value.”

“’Deed, Mass Roger?  Dat alters de case,” said Capua, grinning.  “Dere’s been a good many papers ‘stroyed in dis yer house firs’ an’ last.”

“Which in particular?”

“Don’ rekerlek, massa, it’s so long ago.”

“But make an effort.”