This state of things Colonel Dumont saw, but he did not appreciate the
reason of it. Himself a rigid disciplinarian, he wished not to
interfere, though the cruelty of Jaspar pained his heart. His failing
health had latterly withdrawn his attention still more from the
plantation, and Jaspar drew the reins the tighter when he saw that the
humane eye was removed from him.
Such was Jaspar Dumont, whom we left in Maxwell's office at the close of
our first chapter.
On the day succeeding the departure of Henry Carroll, Colonel Dumont
felt himself much weaker in body, and was fully impressed with the
conviction that his final sickness had laid its hand upon him. To Emily
he had not communicated these gloomy forebodings, and she had discovered
no alarming symptoms in his illness. She had no suspicion of the nature
of her father's business with Maxwell, and had borne his message to the
attorney, as she had often done before, in her frequent visits to New
Orleans, though on this occasion, as may be supposed, she felt much
delicacy in doing so.
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