"Stay, stay," said Randal. "Let me give you a caution. I have just
informed you that Madame di Negra will have, what you suspected not
before, a fortune suitable to her birth. Any abrupt change in your
manner at present might induce her to believe that you were influenced by
that intelligence."

"Ah!" exclaimed Frank, stopping short, as if wounded to the quick. "And
I feel guilty,--feel as if I was influenced by that intelligence. So I
am, too, when I reflect," he continued, with a naivete that was half
pathetic; "but I hope she will not be very rich; if so, I'll not call."

"Make your mind easy, it is but a portion of some twenty or thirty
thousand pounds, that would just suffice to discharge all your debts,
clear away all obstacle to your union, and in return for which you could
secure a more than adequate jointure and settlement on the Casino
property. Now I am on that head, I will be yet more communicative.
Madame di Negra has a noble heart, as you say, and told me herself, that,
until her brother on his arrival had assured her of this dowry, she would
never have consented to marry you, never crippled with her own
embarrassments the man she loves. Ah! with what delight she will hail
the thought of assisting you to win back your father's heart! But be
guarded meanwhile. And now, Frank, what say you--would it not be well if
I ran down to Hazeldean to sound your parents? It is rather inconvenient
to me, to be sure, to leave town just at present; but I would do more
than that to render you a smaller service. Yes, I'll go to Rood Hall
to-morrow, and thence to Hazeldean. I am sure your father will press me
to stay, and I shall have ample opportunities to judge of the manner in
which he would be likely to regard your marriage with Madame di Negra,--
supposing always it were properly put to him. We can then act
accordingly."