" He considered the question for a moment
or two, under that new light, and ended boldly by a decision in my
favour. "Nothing venture, nothing have," the old gentleman resumed. "You
have a chance in your favour which I don't possess--and you shall be the
first to try the experiment."
"A chance in my favour?" I repeated, in the greatest surprise.
Mr. Bruff's face softened, for the first time, into a smile.
"This is how it stands," he said. "I tell you fairly, I don't trust your
discretion, and I don't trust your temper. But I do trust in Rachel's
still preserving, in some remote little corner of her heart, a certain
perverse weakness for YOU. Touch that--and trust to the consequences for
the fullest disclosures that can flow from a woman's lips! The question
is--how are you to see her?"
"She has been a guest of yours at this house," I answered. "May I
venture to suggest--if nothing was said about me beforehand--that I
might see her here?"
"Cool!" said Mr. Bruff. With that one word of comment on the reply that
I had made to him, he took another turn up and down the room.
"In plain English," he said, "my house is to be turned into a trap to
catch Rachel; with a bait to tempt her, in the shape of an invitation
from my wife and daughters.
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