And, once more alone, Ezekiel rested his cheek on his hand, and again surrendered himself to thought.
"The child of Gulian must be found; Ninety-One cannot fail. If he is not found before four o'clock, all is lost—all is lost! Yes, if that child does not appear, this estate,—awful to contemplate in its enormous wealth,—will pass from his grasp, and the labor of twenty-one years will have been spent for nothing. The estate will pass into the hands of the seven, not one of whom will use his share for anything but the gratification of his appetites or the oppression of his kind."
The old man rose, the light shone over his tall figure, bent by age, as, placing his hands behind his back, he paced to and fro along the floor. He was deeply troubled. An anxiety, heavier than death, weighed down his soul.
"The seven,—look at them! Dermoyne is a poor shoemaker. This wealth will intoxicate and corrupt him. Barnhurst, a clerical voluptuary,—he will use his share to gratify his monomania. Yorke, a swindler, who grows rich upon fraud,—his share will enable him to plunge hundreds of the wealthiest into utter ruin, and convulse, to its center, the whole world of commerce and of industry. Barron,—a fashionable sensualist,—he will surround himself with a harem. Godlike, a Borgia,—an intellectual demon,—his share will create a world of crimes. Harry Royalton, a sensualist, though of a different stamp from the others, will expend his in the wine-cup and at the gambling-table. There are six of the seven,—truly a worthy company to share the largest private estate in the world! As for the seventh, he has gone to his account."
Thus meditating, Ezekiel Bogart, slowly paced the floor. He paused suddenly, for a thought full of consequences, the most vital, flashed over his soul.
"What if Martin Fulmer should refuse to divide the estate? Alas! alas! his oath,"—he pressed his hand against his forehead,—"his oath made to Gulian Van Huyden, in his last hour, will crush the very thought of such a refusal. The Will must be obeyed; yes, strictly, faithfully, to the letter, in its most minute details."
Once more resuming his walk, he continued,—
"But the child will be discovered,—the child will be here at the appointed hour."
He spoke these words in a tone of profound conviction.
"I trust in Providence; and Providence will not permit this immense wealth to pass into the hands of those who will abuse it, and make of it the colossal engine of human misery."