"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into the eye of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question had roused his first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only servant of your household who was on the estate at the time of Miss Dumont's birth?"
"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied the anxiety within him.
"Were you alone when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the clergyman, sternly.
"I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you question me. I am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar, rather warmly, his natural testiness getting the better of his discretion.
"Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock humility. "Do not let my curiosity affront you."
"But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your business with this girl."
"I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to impart the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the church. Of course, my business could not be with you in that capacity."
"You seem to have departed very widely from your object," replied Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon religious topics.
"True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and so severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the validity of the will."
"Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the will as her father left it."