His voice changed, and he added in a very low tone,—
“Because it is believed that the capital of the company has been appropriated to other purposes, and lost in speculations on ‘Change.”
The poor old dealer was suffering intensely, and showed it.
“Ah, madam, perfectly as I am convinced of Count Ville-Handry’s uprightness and integrity, I also know that he was utterly ignorant of business. What did he understand of these speculations into which he was drawn? Nothing. It is a difficult and often a dangerous thing to manage large capitals. They have no doubt deceived him, cheated him, misled him, and driven him at last to the verge of bankruptcy.”
“Who?”
Papa Ravinet trembled on his chair, and, raising his hands to the ceiling, exclaimed,—
“Who? You ask who? Why, those who had an interest in it, the wretches by whom he was surrounded,—Sarah, Sir Thorn”—
Henrietta shook her head and said,—
“I do not think the Countess Sarah looked with a favorable eye upon the formation of this company.”
And, when objection was made, she went on,—