One instant Aaron Burr sat, his head dropped, revolving his plans. The next, he pulled the bell-cord and paced the floor until he had answer.
"Go at once to Mrs. Alston's rooms, Charles," said he to the servant. "Tell her to rise and come to me at once. Tell her not to wait. Do you hear?"
He still paced the floor until he heard a light frou-frou in the hall, a light knock at the door. His daughter entered, her eyes still full of sleep, her attire no more than a loose peignoir caught up and thrown above her night garments.
"What is it, father--are you ill?"
"Far from it, my child," said he, turning with head erect. "I am alive, well, and happier than I have been for months--years. I need you--come, sit here and listen to me."
He caught her to him with a swift, paternal embrace--he loved no mortal being as he did his daughter--then pushed her tenderly into the deep seat near by the lamp, while he continued pacing up and down the room, voluble and persuasive, full of his great idea.
The matters which he had but now discussed with the two foreign officials he placed before his daughter. He told her all--except the truth. And Aaron Burr knew how to gild falsehood itself until it seemed the truth.
"Now you have it, my dear," said he. "You see, my ambition to found a country of my own, where a man may have a real ambition. This dirty village here is too narrow a field for talents like yours or mine. Let me tell you, Napoleon has played a great jest with Mr. Jefferson. There is nothing in the Constitution of the United States--I am lawyer enough to know that--which will make it possible for Congress to ratify the purchase of Louisiana. We cannot carve new States from that country--it is already settled by the subjects of another government. Hence the expedition of Mr. Lewis must fail--it must surely fall of its own weight. It is based upon an absurdity. Not even Mr. Jefferson can fly in the face of the supreme laws of the land.
"But as to the Mississippi Valley, matters are entirely different. There is no law against that country's organizing for a better government. There is every natural reason for that. As these States on the East confederated in the cause against oppression, so can those yonder. There will be more opportunity for strong men there when that game is on the board--men like Captain Lewis, for instance. Should one ally one's self with a foredoomed failure? Not at all. I prefer rather success--station, rank, power, money, for myself, if you please. With us--a million dollars for the founding of our new country. With him--for the undertaking of yonder impracticable and chimerical expedition, twenty-five hundred dollars! Which enterprise, think you, will win?