"And welcome. I've a lot of money in securities."
"I won't thank you, Gerald," said Leonard, handing the pen to his step-brother; "you know what my feelings are toward you. Write the sum in yourself."
Gerald wrote, and gave the check back. Leonard just glanced at it, and saw that it was drawn out for twelve hundred pounds, payable to bearer. He passed his hand over his tearless eyes, and turned his head. A very skilful actor indeed was Leonard Paget; he knew to a nicety the value of a light touch. The waiter entered and said the bath was ready.
"Don't bring up breakfast till I ring for it," said Leonard to the man. "Off with you, Gerald. I give you just twenty minutes."
Gerald gone, he looked at the check again. "It is only an instalment," he murmured. "Every shilling he has belongs to me; and I mean to have it. As for this girl--bah! They must never come together again."
Upon Gerald's appearance from the bath he greeted him with a smile. "You look twice the man you were. Now for breakfast. Tuck in, Gerald."
In any other circumstances Gerald would not have been able to eat, but with such a friend and counsellor by his side he made a tolerably good meal. Then Leonard saw him to his bedroom, and did not leave it till the honest fellow was in bed, and had drank another glass of champagne into which Leonard had secretly poured a dozen drops Of a tasteless narcotic which he was in the habit of carrying about with him to insure sleep.
"That will keep him quiet for six or seven hours," he said. "I must have a little time to myself to settle my plans."
The first thing he did when he went from the hotel was to cash the check. He was a man again, his pockets well lined, and he was ready for any villainy. He had little difficulty in discovering where Emilia was, and in ascertaining the character of the ladies who had given her shelter. This knowledge conveyed with it a difficulty; the character for kind-heartedness which he received of the maiden sisters was not favorable to his schemes, and he deemed it best to take no definite step on this day. But he was not idle; he learned all there was to be learned of Emilia, and, reading between the lines, found himself confronted with fresh difficulties. It would not be easy to deceive such a girl--a girl who might have committed an imprudence, but who was not the artful creature he had supposed her to be. He came to the conclusion that the love which existed between her and Gerald was a genuine, honest love. "I must trust a little to chance," he thought. In the afternoon he returned to the hotel. Gerald was still asleep; he waited till the evening, and then heard Gerald moving. He went into the bedroom as Gerald jumped out of bed.
"At last!" he exclaimed, before the young man could utter a word. "I have been trying these last three hours to rouse you. How thoroughly dead beat you must have been to have slept so long!"