He rose, and began walking thoughtfully up and down the room. Twice, I
was on the point of telling him that I had determined on seeing Rachel
personally; and twice, having regard to his age and his character, I
hesitated to take him by surprise at an unfavourable moment.
"The grand difficulty is," he resumed, "how to make her show her whole
mind in this matter, without reserve. Have you any suggestions to
offer?"
"I have made up my mind, Mr. Bruff, to speak to Rachel myself."
"You!" He suddenly stopped in his walk, and looked at me as if he
thought I had taken leave of my senses. "You, of all the people in the
world!" He abruptly checked himself, and took another turn in the room.
"Wait a little," he said. "In cases of this extraordinary kind, the rash
way is sometimes the best way." 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. If you were anybody else but Franklin Blake,
and if this matter was one atom less serious than it really is, I should
refuse point-blank. As things are, I firmly believe Rachel will live
to thank me for turning traitor to her in my old age. Consider me your
accomplice. Rachel shall be asked to spend the day here; and you shall
receive due notice of it."
"When? To-morrow?"
"To-morrow won't give us time enough to get her answer. Say the day
after."
"How shall I hear from you?"