WEALTH WITHOUT WINGS. 201

 

9

“ Pleasure in destroying you?” Claire was still
further affected with surprise. “In no man’s de-
struction could I take pleasure.”

“TJ believe you Edward. And now let me give
you a history of this matter from the beginning.
You will know better what course to pursue when
you comprehend it fully.”

And then, to the astonished ears of Claire, Jas-
per related how, through the man Martin, he be-
came possessed of the fact that the supposed almost
valueless piece of land in Pennsylvania which Mr.
Elder had taken to secure a debt of five hundred
dollars, contained a rich coal deposite—and how,
as executor to his estate, and the guardian of his
child, he had by presenting the child in person be-
fore commissioners appointed by the court, obtained
an order for the sale of the land, with the declared
purpose of investing the proceeds in some produc-
tive property. It was for this that he had been so
anxious to get Fanny, and for this that he carried
her off forcibly, although his agency in the matter
did not appear. He then related how, in the sale,
he became the real purchaser ; and how, afterward,
the tract, as coal land, was sold to a company for
nearly a hundred thousand dollars.

“ But Edward,” said Jasper, as he concluded his
humiliating narrative, “1 am worse off to-day than
‘¢ T had never made this transaction. It gave me
a large amount of capital for trade and speculation,
but it also involved me in connections, and led me
into schemes for money-making, that have wellnigh
proved my ruin. In all truth, I am not, this day,