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Van Vreck asked in a tone which changed to commonplaceness if his voice could ever be commonplace. "I'm a fugitive, and have had a run for my money, so to speak. I'm seeking sanctuary. Also I came in the hope of trying my eloquence on Donaldson. But now I've seen you, I will not do that. In future he's safe from me, I promise you." "Oh!" Annesley faltered.
Do you think those brutes would advertise themselves with their guns if they hadn't been attacked?" With a cry the girl rushed to the long window, and began to unfasten it, but Van Vreck caught her hands. "Stop!" he commanded. "Don't play the robbers' own game for them! How do you know which is nearer the house, Don and his men, or the others?"
But he died, and it was left on their hands till this last autumn." "Ah, then that lovely blue diamond was sold with the other things the Van Vreck agent lost on the Monarchic?" "Was to be sold if the prospective buyer liked it. He had married a white wife, you know, and " "Oh, yes, of course. It was Lady Eve Cassenden. That marriage made a big sensation among us. Horrid, I call it!
Van Vreck." "I do believe it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's being a judge of character. That's why I've made a success of life. You wouldn't lie, perhaps not even to save the one you love best. I believe that he did not tell you the secret. Yet I'm certain you know it. I suppose other discoveries you must have made gave you supernatural intuition. You guessed."
Paul Van Vreck had read of certain experiments made by a professor of chemistry in Tours, had gone to France to see the man, had bought the formula, which had not yet proved itself entirely successful; had added an ingredient on his own account, and triumphed.
But she remembered that night of confession when on his knees he had begged her to forgive, to grant him another chance, and she had refused. He had never asked again. And he had struggled alone for redemption. "I haven't forgotten some early teachings which impressed me," said Paul Van Vreck. "Christ made a remark about forgiving till seventy times seven.
Nelson Smith, who had been dining at Valley House on the evening when the theft was discovered, and Knight was begged for an interview. He was asked if he had formed an opinion as to the disappearance of the three heirlooms, and whether he knew personally Mr. Paul Van Vreck, the American collector and retired head of the famous firm of jewellers, who had wished to buy the vanished treasures.
"It would have been a miracle, yet the servants are above suspicion. Those horrid trustees never let me choose a new one without their interference. And, of course Dick didn't mean what he said about Mr. Van Vreck." "Of course not. I understood that," Annesley excused herself, blushing lest she had appeared obtuse.
If I did what you deserve, I'd send you off without another word turn my back on you and let you go. But " he drew in his breath sharply, then went on as if he had taken some tonic decision "I want you to understand why, if Paul Van Vreck offered me all his money, and you offered me the love of all the women on earth with your own, I shouldn't be tempted to accept.
These parts of the complicated and well-fitting scheme had seemed deliciously amusing to Knight in those days; that Van Vreck should use his secret skill against his own brothers and nephews in the business he had made; that the great expert should add to his fortune by stealing from his own firm, or rather, from the great insurance company who would repay their losses; that in such ways, with such money, he could add treasures to his famous collection, practically at no expense to himself, and have besides the exquisite pleasure of laughing in his sleeve at the world.
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