"Now, child, I'll tell you why.... There are people who when they have given their word think there is no going back on it. They must swallow whatever they've put in their mouths, even if it's a strychnine pill.... My opinion, on the contrary, is that no one ought deliberately to plunge into misfortune--neither he nor you. And since the quickest method is to wash the wool while it's on the sheep, I've come to you to make a little proposition. See, here's a cheque-book. You know what cheque-books are, I expect. On the right side are printed figures from five hundred upwards: All the figures that make the amount bigger than the sum inscribed on the cheque are cut off, in case a little swindler should take it into his head with one little stroke of the pen to cheat one out of a little hundred thousand. Well now, look here. This cheque is signed and dated; the figures alone want to be filled in. I should never permit myself to offer you a certain sum, but I should like you to say what you think would be a decent provision for your future."
He tore the cheque out and laid it on the table in front of her.
"Thank Heaven," thought Lilly, "I had nothing to be afraid of! My heart need not have misgiven me."
Who could be so blind as not to see through this clumsy trick whereby he intended to put to the test her unselfishness about money? So she did not send the old man about his business, as she might with justice have done, if such a proposal had been made to her seriously, but she took the cheque off the table, smiling, tore it carefully to atoms, and flipped them one after the other into his face.
He fidgeted about in his arm-chair.
"Allow me," he said; "please allow me ..."
"No! Such scurvy little jokes I certainly will not allow, dear uncle," she replied.
"But you are declining a fortune, my child. Think what you are doing. We've upset the tenor of your life. We have, as it were, cast you on the gutter. That you shan't perish there is our responsibility. And if you think you will lower yourself in his eyes by accepting, I can swear to you he knows nothing about it; and never will, I'll swear too."
She only smiled.
His small slits of eyes grew bright and hard. Suddenly they began to threaten her.