“Yes, and got about as little satisfaction as one could get.”
“He was not communicative.”
“Not at all. Every answer was an evasion. What little I did get out of him had to be dragged out. The most important questions he positively refused to answer.”
“Of course. I remember all that, for I was the one who wished to know, and consequently his refusal to answer affected me most of all. I wondered at the time, and thought that it might be some quiet plan of his, but I really had no idea of the audacity of his plans.”
“How is that?”
“Wait a moment. Did you see anything in this man that could excite the suspicion that he was at all flighty or insane?”
“Insane! Certainly not. He was, on the contrary, the sanest person I ever met with.”
“Well, then, he must have become insane since. I've no doubt that he has for years been planning to get control of the Dalton property; and now, when he has become insane, he is still animated by this ruling passion, and has gone to work to gratify it in this mad way.”
“Mad way? What mad way? I don't understand.”
“Well, I'll tell you all about it. I merely wished to get your unbiased opinion of the man first;” and upon this Sir Lionel told him the whole story which Miss Plympton had narrated to him. To all this Leon listened with the deepest interest and the most profound astonishment, interrupting his father by frequent questions and exclamations.