a little to test his pulse, released it, not with the tenderness we render to suffering, but with a more summary reverence. Suffering was over.
By the close of the day I had finished my preparations for attending my step-brother's remains to burial in Philadelphia, among those of his own people; but before my departure, I measured once more that well-trodden road to the house by the river, and requested a moment's conversation with Mr. Guest. In spite of my attention being otherwise engaged, I had felt strangely all day that I carried a sort of magic talisman, a mystic key to fortune. I was constantly fumbling in my waistcoat pocket to see whether the talisman was really there. I wondered that as yet Guest should not have demanded a surrender of his note; but I attributed his silence to shame, scorn, and defiance, and promised myself a sort of golden advantage by anticipating his claim with the cogent frankness of justice. But as soon as he entered the room I foresaw that Justice must show her sword as well as her scales. His resentment had deepened into a kind of preposterous arrogance, of a temper quite insensible to logic. He had more than recovered his native buoyancy and splendor; there was an air of feverish impudence in his stare, his light swagger, in the very hue and fashion of his crimson necktie. He had an evil genius with blond curls and innumerable flounces.
"I feel it to be a sort of duty," I said, "to inform you that my brother died this morning."
"Your brother? What's your brother to me? He's been dead to me these three days. Is that all you have to say?"
I was irritated by the man's stupid implacability, and my purpose received a check. "No," I answered, "I've several things more to touch upon."
"In so far as they concern my daughter, you may leave them unsaid. She tells me of your offer to—to buy off my opposition. Am I to understand that it was seriously made? You're a coarser young man than I fancied!"
"She told you of my offer?" I cried.
"O, you needn't build upon that. She hasn't mentioned your name since."
