“Exactly. You are quite right,” said Deering; “it is only a new adaptation in which I saw fortune, for it could be used in hundreds of ways where hot-water is not applicable now. I saw large works springing up, and an engineering business in which I hoped you, Vane, would share; for with your brains, my boy, I foresaw that you would be invaluable to me, and would be making a great future for yourself. There, now, you see my plans, Lee. Do I seem so mad and reckless to you both? Have I not gone on step by step, and was I not justified in trying to get monetary help to carry out my preparations for what promised so clearly to be a grand success?”
“Well, really, Deering, I can’t help saying yes,” said the doctor. “It does look right, doesn’t it, my dear?”
“Yes,” said Aunt Hannah, with a sigh; “it does certainly look right.”
“I would not go far till, as I thought, I had tested my plans in every way.”
“That was right,” said the doctor. “Well, what’s the matter—why hasn’t it succeeded?”
“Ah, why, indeed?” replied Deering. “Some law of nature, which, in spite of incessant study, I cannot grasp, has been against me.”
Vane was poring over the plans, with his forehead full of lines and his mouth pursed up, and, after bringing sheet after sheet to the top, he ended by laying the fullest drawing with all its colourings and references out straight, and, lifting the lamp back upon it in the centre of the table to give a better light; and while his aunt and untie were right and left, Mr Deering was facing him, and he had his back to the fire:
“But you should have made models, and tested it all thoroughly.”
“I did, Lee, I did,” cried Mr Deering, passionately. “I made model after model, improving one upon the other, till I had reached, as I thought, perfection. They worked admirably, and when I was, as I thought, safe, and had obtained my details, I threw in the capital, for which you were security, started my works, and began making on a large scale. Orders came in, and I saw, as I told you, fortune in my grasp.”
“Well, and what then?”