“Good heavens!” ejaculated the lawyer, in admirably counterfeited consternation. “How did this come about?”
“That is more than I can pretend to say. I came to you for the sake of obtaining information.”
“Which I am wholly unable to afford.”
Lewis threw himself upon a chair.
“To think,” he exclaimed, bitterly, “that this should happen when I am just within reach of success. Twenty-four hours more, and it would probably have been too late!”
“How?”
“I mean that my uncle probably has not twenty-four hours lease of life, unless this meeting revives him. The probability is, that it will have a contrary effect.”
“Do you consider that you have lost all?”
“Fortunately, no. I am in hopes that this interview will, after all, prove of no advantage to my cousin.”
“Ah!” said Mr. Sharp, rubbing his hands with apparent delight, but secret anxiety, beginning for the first time to feel that he would not be recompensed for his treachery.