“What are you thinking of?” he asked.  “Come, let us hear your opinion.  Tell us frankly that you suspect Miss Brandon, and accuse her of trying to catch me in her snares, or, at least, of having selfish views.”

“I do not say so,” stammered Daniel.

“No, but you think so; and that is worse.  Well, come; I think I can convince you of your mistake.  What do you think Miss Brandon would gain by marrying me?  A fortune, you say.  I have only one word in reply; but that is sufficient; Miss Brandon is richer than I am.”

How, and at what price, Miss Brandon had managed to possess herself of such a fortune, Daniel knew but too well from Maxime’s account; hence he could not suppress a nervous shudder, which the count noticed, and which irritated him.

“Yes, richer than I am,” he repeated.  “The oil-wells which she has inherited from her father bring her in, bad years and good years, from thirty to forty thousand dollars a year, and that in spite of their being sadly mismanaged.  If they were well managed, they would produce, three, four, or five times as much, or even more.  Sir Thorn has proved to me that they are an almost inexhaustible mine of wealth.  If petroleum was not fabulously profitable, how would you account for the oil-fever with which these cool, calculating Americans have suddenly been seized, and which has made more millionaires than the gold-fever in California and the Territories?  Ah! there is something to be made there yet, and something grand, if one could dispose of a large capital.”

He became excited, and forgot himself; but he soon checked himself.  He had evidently been on the point of letting a secret leak out.  After a few moments, he continued more calmly,—­

“But enough of that.  I trust your suspicions are removed.  Next you may tell me that Miss Brandon takes me because she can do no better.  Mistaken again, my friend.  At this very moment she is called upon to choose between me and a much younger man than I am, whose fortune, moreover, is larger than mine,—­Mr. Wilkie Gordon.”

How did it come about that Count Ville-Handry seemed to appeal to Daniel, and to plead his cause before him?  Daniel did not even think of asking himself that question; his mind was in a state of utter confusion.  Still, as the count insisted on having his opinion, as he urged him, and repeatedly asked, “Well, do you see any other objection?” he forgot at last his friend’s prudent warning, and said in a troubled voice,—­

“No doubt, count, you know Miss Brandon’s family?”

“Certainly!  Do you think I would buy a cat in a bag?  Her excellent father was a model of honesty.”

“And—­her previous life?”

The count started from his chair, and, casting a savage glance at Daniel, said,—­

“Oh, oh!  I see one of those rascally slanderers, who have tried to tarnish the honor of the noblest and chastest of all women, has already been at work here, anticipating my communication to you, and repeating those infamous calumnies.  You must give me the name of the scoundrel.”