away, ere he should be discovered, to invent some plan whereby to
counteract the effects likely to produce a permanent feeling against him.

After long and deep thought, during which scheme after scheme was suggested
to his mind, turned over, examined, and abandoned, he finally hit upon an
expedient that suited his purpose exactly, and at once resolved to act upon
it. For this purpose he sought and obtained a private interview with Mr.
Mandeville, as already intimated, in which he began the development of his
plot as follows:

"I have sought this interview with no idle purpose, Mr. Mandeville," he
began. "You are already aware of the deep interest I feel in your daughter,
and how intimately my future happiness is interwoven with her good
opinion. That good opinion, I have the best of evidence to believe, is
being undermined by one to whom you have ever been kind, but who, I am
sure, you would not wish to become your son-in-law, though he has the
audacity--if I may be allowed so strong an expression--to aspire after your
daughter's hand! Having nothing of his own to recommend him, and knowing
that I am in his way, he does not cease to traduce me to your daughter on
every occasion, and I fear the insidious poison of his oily tongue has
already had a serious effect on her mind, which, if not put an end to, will
turn her good opinion of me into dislike or even aversion. Why it was but a
few days ago that he and another fellow, a stranger in these parts, and a
very suspicious-looking chap, had a conference in private, of, to say the
best of it, a very sinister character; and, would you believe it, this
fellow disguised himself so as to appear the very personation of myself?

"I was struck dumb, sir, when these facts were put in my possession by one
of my workmen, who happened to see the villains and overhear a part of
their talk. But the worst of the story remains to be told. Either by chance