A moment later Mr. Wilkinson stood in the presence of his prey. Or perchance—but no, this was to be Marengo, not Waterloo—and above all, not Moscow. Something of this was in his eyes when he lifted them to meet those of his distinguished relation.
"Are you at liberty for a few moments?" he soberly inquired. He took care to delete every vestige of animation from his tone and manner, and so radical a change did this effect that his step-uncle blinked. A man as keen as John M. Hurd could not be blind to a mutation so great. He looked Mr. Wilkinson over with more care than he had ever employed before, for he recognized at once that this was no ordinary visit.
"I am as much at liberty as I am likely to be," he replied noncommittally.
His visitor wistfully and somewhat suggestively eyed a chair, but made no move to be seated. He felt that, no matter how the interview was to close, punctiliousness should begin it.
"Be seated," said Mr. Hurd, briefly.
"I have come to see you, sir," his young relative began, feeling his way cautiously, "with reference to a matter that I have never mentioned to you, although I have been studying it for some time. Perhaps you may be of the opinion that if it were of paramount importance I could have presented it to you without a long preliminary investigation. But each of us has to work in his own way, and this affair was of a sort in which I had little or no previous experience. The result was that it has taken me a considerable time to formulate my idea, and I want you to give it a fair opportunity to sink in, so to speak, before you reach any decision."
With his curiosity somewhat stirred, his hearer grunted a qualified assent.
"I have, of course, fortified myself by the possession of facts,—actual facts, sir,—and without them I should not have trespassed on your time, for I must tell you at once that my proposition concerns itself with the fire insurance of the Massachusetts Light, Heat, and Traction Company."
The knowledge that this was probably the most perilous point in his passage would have caused Wilkinson to hurry past with all possible speed, but his uncle interrupted him with a grim laugh.
"That need give you no concern, my young friend," he said curtly, "for the company does not carry any insurance."