CHAPTER IV.

AN UNEXPECTED CONFESSION.





HAVING executed the document, Marston ordered one of the servants to
show Maxwell his room. The persons who had acted the part of
justices, authenticating the instrument, withdrew without further
conversation; while the person who had followed Lorenzo, for such
was the young man's name, remained as if requiring some further
negotiation with Marston. He approached the table sullenly, and with
one hand resting upon it, and the other adjusted in his vest,
deliberately waited the moment to interrupt the conversation. This
man, reader, is Marco Graspum, an immense dealer in human
flesh,--great in that dealing in the flesh and blood of mankind which
brings with it all the wickedness of the demon. It is almost
impossible to conceive the suddenness with which that species of
trade changes man into a craving creature, restless for the dross of
the world. There he was, the heartless dealer in human flesh,
dressed in the garb of a gentleman, and by many would have been
taken as such. Care and anxiety sat upon his countenance; he watched
the chances of the flesh market, stood ready to ensnare the careless
youth, to take advantage of the frailer portions of a Southerner's