Lucas nodded, his blue eyes glittering on Andrew all the time; and there followed a pause in the conversation.
"What do you propose to do?" asked Andrew.
"Make you disgorge, old cock," said Heriot.
"Disgorge what?"
"Every single penny you inherited!"
Andrew made a last convulsive struggle.
"I'll not do it!"
"In that case, the following interesting facts will immediately be made public: that you lied when you said your father was in an asylum, and lied again when you said he was dead; that he suffered indescribable agonies in consequence of your ill-treatment; that he is either alive at this moment or died a death that will bring tears to the eyes of all Edinburgh; and that, in any case, you helped yourself to his fortune with precisely as much justification as a burglar who opens a safe. The matter will then be placed in the hands of Thompson, Gilray, & Young."
This choice of a vindictive rival firm struck Andrew as the most diabolical artifice of all. His eyes blinked and his cheeks twitched; and when he spoke his voice reminded them painfully of the professional mendicant of the pavement.
"Would you ruin me?"