"As to the young lady, you need have no fear," said Pardee. "She
is not one of the kind that lose their heads.
"Ah, you seem to be quite an admirer of her?"
"I am, madam."
"If we do not accept her proposal, you will no doubt become her
attorney?"
"I am such already."
"You don't say so? Well, you are making good speed. I should think
you might have waited till you had dropped us before picking her
up. But then, it will be a good thing to be the attorney of such
an heiress, and we shall be poor indeed after she gets her own--as
you say it is."
"Madam," said Pardee seriously, "I shall expect you to apologize
both to me and to my client when you have heard her proposition."
"I shall be very likely to, Mr. Pardee," she said, with a dry
laugh. "I come of an apologetic race. Old Jim Richards was full
of apologies. He liked to have died of them, numberless times. But
what is your proposal?"
"As I said," remarked Pardee, "my client--I beg pardon--the
great-grand-daughter of 'Red Jim' Richards, instructs me to say that
she does not desire to stain her family name or injure your feelings
by exposing the fraud of your ancestor, 'Black Jim' Richards.
"What, sir!" said Mrs. Le Moyne sharply. "Fraud! You had better
measure your words, sir, when you speak of my father. Do you hear
that, Hesden? Have you lost all spirit since you became a Radical?"
she continued, while her eyes flashed angrily.
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