"Good. If you did not understand I should have to assist your memory with reminders of other things--which would have been no more remembered had all gone well--and of several little matters in your past known to me. However, you need no reminders such as those, I think."
Again Vandecque showed by a nod that such was the case.
"Good. Therefore, you will assist me to rehabilitate myself. So. So. Very well. We must begin at once. Because, Vandecque, I am not well, this has been a great shock to me--and--and, Vandecque, I had a--perhaps it was an apoplectic seizure six months ago, when--when--I was falsely accused of--but no matter. I am afraid I may have another ere long. I feel symptoms. My feet are heavy, my speech is uncertain. I must not leave the thing undone."
"What," asked the other, "will you do?"
"What!" Desparre paused a moment, and again the twitching came to his lips; then, when it was over, he went on. "What! Vandecque," speaking rapidly this time, "do you love your niece at all?"
"Passably," and he shrugged his shoulders, "she was beloved of my dead wife, and she was useful. Also, I hoped great things from her marriage."
"Those hopes are vanished, Vandecque. So, too, for the matter of that, is your niece. Therefore, it will not grieve you never to see her again?"
"I shall never see her again. You forget she has a husband."
"No, Vandecque. No! I do not forget. It is that which I am remembering."
"What do you mean, Monsieur?"