"
These remarks, whether considered as truisms or as depicting Mr.
Jones's mental state, were distinctly discouraging to the long-suffering
Schomberg; but there is truth in the well-known saying that places
the darkest hour before the dawn. The sound of words, apart from the
context, has its power; and these two words, 'run off,' had a special
affinity to the hotel-keeper's, haunting idea. It was always present
in his brain, and now it came forward evoked by a purely fortuitous
expression. No, nobody could run off with a continent; but Heyst had run
off with the girl!
Ricardo could have had no conception of the cause of Schomberg's changed
expression. Yet it was noticeable enough to interest him so much that
he stopped the careless swinging of his leg and said, looking at the
hotel-keeper:
"There's not much use arguing against that sort of talk--is there?"
Schomberg was not listening.
"I could put you on another track," he said slowly, and stopped, as if
suddenly choked by an unholy emotion of intense eagerness combined with
fear of failure. Ricardo waited, attentive, yet not without a certain
contempt.
"On the track of a man!" Schomberg uttered convulsively, and paused
again, consulting his rage and his conscience.
"The man in the moon, eh?" suggested Ricardo, in a jeering murmur.
Schomberg shook his head.
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