“I may warn you,” added he, “that Mademoiselle Clara Stocmar, for as such is she inscribed, will not be given up to you, or to any one save myself, or by my order.”
“I am aware of that, and therefore you will write this order. Mr. Stocmar, you need not be told by me that the fact of this girl being an English subject once admitted, the law of this country will take little heed of the regulations of a musical academy; save yourself this publicity, and write as I tell you.”
Stocmar wrote some hurried lines and signed them. “Will that do?”
“Perfectly,” said he, folding up both papers, and placing them in his pocket. “Now, Mr. Stocmar, thus far has been all business between us. You have done me a small service, and for it I am willing to forgive a great wrong; still, it is a fair bargain. Let us see, however, if we cannot carry our dealings a little further. Here is a case where a dreadful scandal will be unburied, and one of the most fearful crimes be brought again before public notice, to herald the narrative of an infamous fraud. I am far from suspecting or insinuating that you have had any great part whatever in these transactions, but I know that when once they have become town talk, Hyman Stocmar will figure as a prominent name throughout. He will not appear as a murderer or a forger, it is true, but he will stand forward the intimate friend of the worst characters in the piece, and have always some small petty share of complicity to answer for. Is it not worth while to escape such an open exposure as this? What man—least of all, what man moving where you do—could court such scandal?”
Stocmar made no answer, but, leaning his head on his hand, seemed lost in thought.
“I can show you how to avoid it all. I will point ont the way to escape from the whole difficulty.”
“How do you mean?” cried Stocmar, suddenly.
“Leave the knaves and come over to the honest men; or desert the losing side and back the winner, if you like that better. In plain English, tell me all you know of this case, and of every one concerned in it. Give me your honest version of the scheme,—how it has been done and by whom. You know Trover and Hunt well; say what were their separate shares. I will not betray your confidence; and if I can, I will reward it.”
“Let your son leave us. I will speak to you alone,” said Stocmar, in a faint whisper.
Alfred, at a signal from his father, stepped quietly away, and they were alone.