it. Dalibard had not the avarice that belongs either to a miser or a
spendthrift. In his youth, his books and the simple desires of an
abstract student sufficed to his wants, and a habit of method and order,
a mechanical calculation which accompanied all his acts, from the least
to the greatest, preserved him, even when most poor, from neediness and
want. Nor was he by nature vain and ostentatious,--those infirmities
accompany a larger and more luxurious nature. His philosophy rather
despised, than inclined to, show. Yet since to plot and to scheme made
his sole amusement, his absorbing excitement, so a man wrapped in
himself, and with no generous ends in view, has little to plot or to
scheme for but objects of worldly aggrandizement. In this Dalibard
resembled one whom the intoxication of gambling has mastered, who neither
wants nor greatly prizes the stake, but who has grown wedded to the
venture for it. It was a madness like that of a certain rich nobleman in
our own country who, with more money than he could spend, and with a
skill in all games where skill enters that would have secured him success
of itself, having learned the art of cheating, could not resist its
indulgence. No hazard, no warning, could restrain him,--cheat he must;
the propensity became iron-strong as a Greek destiny.

That the possible chance of an inheritance so magnificent should dazzle
Lucretia and Gabriel, was yet more natural; for in them it appealed to
more direct and eloquent, though not more powerful, propensities.
Gabriel had every vice which the greed of gain most irritates and
excites. Intense covetousness lay at the core of his heart; he had the
sensual temperament, which yearns for every enjoyment, and takes pleasure
in every pomp and show of life. Lucretia, with a hardness of mind that
disdained luxury, and a certain grandeur (if such a word may be applied
to one so perverted) that was incompatible with the sordid infirmities of
the miser, had a determined and insatiable ambition, to which gold was a