“Pardon me. Incidents resembling it are not infrequent. There was the famous Burrows case, where a child stolen by Indians was recovered and identified in time to prevent the diversion of a large property. There was the case of Aubert, where a quadroon concubine managed to substitute her own child in the place of the legitimate heir. Indeed, I could mention quite a number of cases, not at all dissimilar, and some of them having much more of the quality of romance.”
“Damn it, Semmes, what are you driving at? Do you want to take a chance in that lottery?”
“Have I ever deserted a client? We must not shrink—we lawyers—from looking a case square in the face.”
“Nonsense! The art how not to see is that which the prudent lawyer is most solicitous to learn. It is not by looking a case square in the face, but by looking only at his side of it, that he wins.”
“On the contrary, the man of nerve looks boldly at the danger, and fends off accordingly. Should you marry this young lady, it may be a very pleasant thing to know that she’s the true heir to a million.”
“Curse me, but I didn’t think of that!” cried Ratcliff, rubbing his hands, and then patting the lawyer on the shoulder. “Go on with your investigations, Semmes! Hunt up more information about the Pontiac. Go and see Laborie. Question Ripper, the auctioneer. I left him in Montgomery, but he will be at the St. Charles to-morrow. Find out who Quattles was; and who the Colonel was who acted as Quattles’s friend, but whose name I forget. ’T is barely possible there may have been some little irregularities practised; and if so, so much the better for me! What fat pickings for you, Semmes, if we could make it out that this little girl is the rightful heir! All this New Orleans property can be saved from Confederate confiscation. And then, as soon as the war is ended, we can go and establish her rights in New York.”
Semmes took a pinch of snuff, and replied: “You remember Mrs. Glass’s well-worn receipt for cooking a hare: ‘First, catch your hare.’ So I say, first make sure that the young girl will say yes to your proposition.”
“What! do you entertain a doubt? A slave? One I could send to the auction-block to-morrow? Do you imagine she will decline an alliance with Carberry Ratcliff? Look you, Semmes! I’ve set my heart on this marriage more than I ever did on any other scheme in my whole life. The chance—for ’t is only a remote chance—that she is of gentle blood,-well-born, the rightful heir to a million,—this enhances the prize, and gives new piquancy to an acquisition already sufficiently tempting to my eyes. There must be no such word as fail in this business, Mr. Lawyer. You must help me to bring it to a prosperous conclusion instantly.”
“No: do not say instantly. Beware being precipitate. Remember what the poet says,—‘A woman’s No is but a crooked path unto a woman’s Yes.’ Do not mind a first rebuff. Do not play the master. Be distant and respectful. Attempt no liberties. You will only shock and exasperate. By a gentle, insinuating course, you may win.”
“May win? I must win, Semmes! There must be no if about it.”