ful creature--high-spirited--every way
worthy--"

"Damnation! this is too much," growled Jaspar, fiercely, as he seized
the pistol which lay near him, and levelled it at De Guy. "You cursed
villain! You and I must cry quits!"

"Do not miss your aim!" coolly returned the attorney, drawing from his
pocket a revolver. "Miss not your aim, or the fortune is _all_ mine."

Jaspar was overcome by the coolness of De Guy, and, throwing down the
pistol, he sank back into his chair, overpowered by the violence of his
emotions.

"De Guy!" said he; "fiend! devil! you were born to torment me. There is
no hotter hell than thine! Do thy work. I must bear all,"--and Jaspar
felt that he was sold to the fiend before him.

"My dear sir, do not distress yourself," replied the attorney, resuming
his supercilious manner, which he had laid aside in the moment of peril.
"I offer you the means of safety. You will escape all the dangers that
lower over you by my plan, which, I am glad to see, you perfectly
understand."

"And lose the price for which I sold my soul? Even Judas had his forty
pieces of silver--the more fool he, to throw them away! I could not do
this thing, if I would. My soul is bound to my money."

"Pshaw! do not let avarice be your besetting sin. It is a vice too mean
for your noble nature."

Jaspar tried to sneer again, but the muscles refused to perform their
office. He stood like a convicted demon before his sulphurous master.

"It must be done," said De Guy; "there is no other way."

Jaspar heard the words, and struggled to avoid the conclusion towards
which they pointed. The demon bade him yield, and the command was
imperative. He could not resist--his will was gone.

"What are the details of your plan?" gasped he, faintly.

"Marry the lady, and take up my abode in this mansion," replied the
attorney, promptly.

"And turn me out of doors! Well, be it so. I must do as you will."

"Nay, nay, my dear sir; you wrong me. You shall still be the honored
inmate of our dwelling,--the affectionate uncle of your Emily, as of
old," said the attorney, with infinite good humor.

Jaspar had well-nigh recovered his self-possession under the stroke of
this, to him, severe satire; but De Guy gave him no time.

"We must proceed in some haste," continued the attorney, seizing a pen,
and writing as he spoke. "My time is short, and I have already been
somewhat lavish of it. Here, sign this paper; it is your consent to my
union