"Right! Legal right, yes; no doubt it is so; but who but a villain would put the matter in this way!"
"What I do not understand," said Madame de Vaudrey, "is his motive. If Adèle were a great heiress, I can understand that he should press his suit; but she is not; this poor little estate would not tempt an ambitious man; and as for herself, she has shown her aversion so plainly——"
"I hate him!" cried the girl, with a vehemence that surprised Harry, so unlike was it to her usual cold self-contained air.
"It is wrong to hate," said her mother; "but the dear girl has no liking for him, and how should a man desire for a wife one to whom he is so indifferent?"
"Tell me," said Harry, "is the mortgage for a large sum?"
"Alas! yes, for several thousand guilders; that is for the estate alone: the house is separately mortgaged, and the mortgagee in that case is content to receive his interest."
"Have you no relatives who would advance the money?"
"Not one. We are poor exiles, and have not, I believe, one relative in the wide world."
Harry was greatly distressed. It was clear that Adèle would never consent to marry Polignac, even if her mother wished it; and there was no escape from the dilemma save by raising the money.
"Are you quite sure you are so fully in the man's power?" he asked.