'I am ready to pay you five thousand pounds as her jointure, because she is my daughter, whom I dearly love, and I wish to provide for her comfort and happiness in the future when I am dead and forgotten.'
'And you were thinking only of her comfort and happiness when you offered us those Patagonian bonds,' said Trecarrel. 'Fortunately, I was equally interested in the dear creature's comfort and happiness, and in her interest I declined them.'
'Have done with those Patagonian bonds,' said Tramplara, impatiently. 'You will bring my white hairs with exasperation to the grave. I shall go down stairs, and leave you to soak in bed. Do you intend to lie here for a twelve-month? I do not believe you are seriously ill.'
'Seriously indisposed is what I said,' answered the Captain.
'You have done this sort of thing before,' said old Tramplara, very hot and angry; 'I have heard of you. Ridiculous! not like a man.'
Trecarrel was wholly unmoved. He turned round in his bed with his face to the wall. The old man stamped about the room, swearing and uttering his opinions freely, without eliciting a word from the Captain. After a while he cooled down, finding that his wrath and remonstrances were ineffectual, and he seated himself on a chair by the bedside.
'Be reasonable, Captain,' he said. 'What is the drift of this farce?'
Trecarrel turned round in bed, and faced him with perfect equanimity in his handsome features.
'I say, Trampleasure, the second Solomon who draws gold out of Ophir, I give it up. How do you manage it?'
The fiery flush again came into the old man's face.