"Still I do not believe you," said Chaytor.
"Wait and see; you will not have to wait long."
The tone in which he uttered this carried conviction with it.
"Do you know what you have done?" cried Chaytor furiously. "You have ruined me!"
"What!" responded Mr. Chaytor, with savage sarcasm. "Is there any more of this kind of paper floating about?" Chaytor bit his lips, and his fingers twitched nervously, but he did not reply. "If there is be advised, and prepare for it. In the list of my liabilities, which is now being prepared, there will be no place for them. How should there be, when I am in ignorance of your prospective villainies. Do you see now to what you have brought me?"
"Do you see to what you have brought me?" exclaimed Chaytor in despair. "Why did you not tell me of it months ago?"
"Because I hoped by other speculations to set myself straight. But everything has gone wrong--everything. Understand, I cannot trouble myself about your affairs; I have enough to do with my own. I have one satisfaction; your mother will not suffer."
"How is that?"
"The settlement I made upon her in the days of my prosperity is hers absolutely, and only she can deal with it. In the settlement of my business there shall be no sentimental folly; I will see to that. Her money shall not go to pay my debts.
"But it shall go," thought Chaytor, with secret joy, "to get me out of the scrape I am in. It belongs to me by right. I will see that neither you nor your creditors tamper with it." He breathed more freely; he could still defy the world.