True, he reasoned, the young
officer was powerless as a diplomatist. Ho as yet knew nothing of the
will, or of Emily's degraded position. Henry knew the feelings and
character of his brother, and would be the last one to believe the
infamous statement of the will. What the father might have said to him
in regard to her he knew not. As guilt always does, he imagined a
thousand dangers, and saw with a clear vision the real ones besides.
At the tea-table there was little conversation beside the ordinary
courtesies of the occasion. Jaspar said but little.
The guilty never feel any security in the enjoyment of ill-gotten
wealth. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. The cries of
the widow and the orphan continually ring in the ear of the avaricious.
The fear of discovery haunted Jaspar. Although he saw no probability of
his villany being exposed, the fear of discovery troubled him day and
night. Revengeful and cruel, dauntless and bold, as he had ever been,
the present seemed a crisis in his life. He had accomplished the climax
of villany, and as he had racked his powers of invention for the means
of attaining his purpose, he now taxed them for the means of concealing
it.
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