The great financier was in his power. He looked back again to the girl,
and her face was full of trouble.

A sharp suspicion was in her heart that somehow or other her father was
responsible for this man's degradation and ruin. She looked Lygon in the
eyes.

"Did you want to see me?" she asked.

She scarcely knew why she said it; but she was sensible of trouble, maybe
of tragedy, somewhere; and she had a vague dread of she knew not what,
for hide it, avoid it, as she had done so often, there was in her heart
an unhappy doubt concerning her father.

A great change had come over Lygon. Her presence had altered him. He
was again where she had left him in the afternoon.

He heard her say to her father, "This was the man I told you of--at the
reedy lake. Did you come to see me?" she repeated.

"I did not know you were here," he answered. "I came"--he was conscious
of Henderley's staring eyes fixed upon him helplessly--"I came to ask
your father if he would not buy my shack. There is good shooting at the
lake; the ducks come plenty, sometimes. I want to get away, to start
again somewhere. I've been a failure. I want to get away, right away
south. If he would buy it I could start again. I've had no luck." He
had invented it on the moment, but the girl understood better than Lygon
or Henderley could have dreamed. She had seen the change pass over
Lygon. Henderley had a hand on himself again, and the startled look went
out of his eyes.