Hatchie, the Guardian Slave | Page 5

marrying the
heiress,--a purpose too deeply incorporated with his future prospects to
be resigned,--was now a desperate one. Through the long vista of
struggles and difficulties he saw his end, and the fact that he had to
some extent compromised his heart stimulated him still more to meet
and overcome the barriers that environed him.
For an hour after the lady's departure the young lawyer pondered the
obstacles which beset him. With the aspect of an angry rather than a
disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and irregular strides.
He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is absolute, and he must
bend in submission. He blamed his own tardiness one moment, and his
precipitancy the next; then he cursed his ill luck, and vented his anger
and disappointment in a volley of oaths.
His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's
announcement of "Mr. Dumont."
"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to Bellevue.
Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell, laying aside, with
no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and assuming his usual bland
demeanor.
"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.
"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell. "She
requested me immediately to visit your brother."
"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will style

Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel Dumont.
"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having detained me
longer than I supposed it would."
"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother
wished to see you was concerning his will."
"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell, in
apparent alarm.
"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he thinks
otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in order," replied
Jaspar, with a sickly smile.
"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to be prepared
for the final event."
"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught of the will,
which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all possible haste. Will
it take you long?"
"An hour or two."
"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on my
return."
"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and the
morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."
Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging his host's
courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task before him. The
first part of the will was speedily written; but those parts which alluded
to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing the opulence that awaited her,
he could not so easily pass over. They were so strongly suggestive of
the fortunate lot of him who should wed her, that he could scarcely
proceed with the work. An hour before, she had veiled his prospects in
darkness; now he was preparing a will which would, at no distant day,

place her in possession of a princely fortune. His mind was so firmly
fixed upon the attainment of this treasure that it refused to bend itself to
the task before him.
Jaspar had finished his cigar, and began to be a little impatient. Thrice
he rose from his chair, and looked over the lawyer's shoulder.
"This is an important paper," said Maxwell, noticing Jaspar's
impatience, "and must be executed with great care."
"So it is; but the colonel may die before you get it done," observed
Jaspar, coarsely, and with a crafty smile, which was not unnoticed by
the attorney.
"O, no! I hope not," replied Maxwell, exhibiting the prototype of
Jaspar's smile.
A smile! What is it? What volumes are conveyed in a single smile! It is
the magnetic telegraph by which sympathetic hearts convey their
untold and unmentionable purposes. To the anxious lover it is the
bearer of the first tidings of joy. Long before the heart dare resort to
coarse, material words, the smile carries the messages of affection. To
the villain it reveals the sympathetic purposes of his according fiend.
What the lead and line are to the pilot, the smile, the cunning,
dissembling smile, is to the base mind. By means of it he feels his way
into the heart and soul of his supposed prototype.
Maxwell knew enough of human character to read correctly the
meaning of Jaspar's crafty smile. The attorney had long known that he
was cold and unfeeling, a bear in his deportment, and sadly lacking in
common integrity; but that he was capable of bold and daring villany
he had had no occasion to suspect. As he turned to the document again,
the base character of the uncle came up for consideration in connection
with his suit to the