"P.S.--As the papers are scarcely quite safe in my own rooms, I mean to place them in the hands of a lawyer, in case you should not, very promptly, dispose of them otherwise.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Felix; "there the fox shows his cunning! In case you should not otherwise dispose of them, underscored: i. e., have the goodness to name the sum which you think you can afford to pay for these papers, and the secret goes no farther!--Ha, ha, ha! Yes, yes, Timm is a clever fellow, I always knew that."
"Then you think he has really found the papers?" asked the baroness, in astonishment.
"Why not?" said Felix. "The thing looks extremely probable, and I advise you to buy the papers before they rise in the market."
"And do you also think that this--that this man--I can hardly speak of it calmly--that this Stein is really Harald's son?"
"It is by no means impossible," said Felix.
"No, it is impossible," cried the baroness, with great vehemence; "the whole is a wretched plot, an abominable conspiracy between the two sharpers. The letters are forgeries; they have been concocted and written by the two rascals when they were here together. It is a mere invention to frighten us and to extort money from us--or perhaps, ha! now I see! Don't you see, Felix, what they are after? They want Helen! One is to have the money, the other the girl! Ha, ha, ha! Capital! What a pity Helen did not say anything of that also in her letter to Mary Burton, for I wager she is in the plot too. But they shall not get anything, not a dollar!"
"Do not take the matter too lightly, dearest aunt," said Felix. "I tell you Timm is a clever fellow, and if the letters are really forgeries, you will find they are prodigiously well done. They will give you trouble. Will you listen to my advice?"
"Well!"
"Let me go to-morrow, or at some time, to Grunwald and talk with Timm. I have had, in former times, many a conversation with him, and he knows that I am not easily hoodwinked. We shall have to pay something, I am sure, but I can get the papers cheaper than anybody else."