“My dear sir,” exclaimed the Abbé, uneasily, “official declarations are a guarantee of faith. One cannot go against facts. The Dalgetty was taken out by an English company before the Trémont.”
“And how does that affect us? The Dalgetty has no value; those who have sent you here are well aware of that fact. We have them in our power, I tell you; they can do nothing. Their patent is not worth the money they have spent in taking it out. For months past Lichtenbach and ourselves have been adversaries over the Explosives Company. We hold the right end, that he well knows. He will soon have to undertake a liquidation. And then?”
“He offers to stop his bear operations.”
“He cannot continue them any longer.”
“He will take at half price the shares of the Explosives of which you are the holders, and pay for them at once.”
“I dare say he will; they will rise at a leap to two hundred francs each!”
“He is ready to offer you a pledge of his frank and, henceforth, invariable co-operation. If, in your family, you had a person belonging to his family, if an alliance united your common interests, would you not consider that an absolute guarantee of his sincere cessation of enmity against you?”
Graff turned pale, but succeeded in mastering his emotions, and, wishing to know his opponent’s inmost thoughts, he said—
“Who is the person in question on Lichtenbach’s side?”
“Mademoiselle Marianne, his daughter.”