h I have about me," I
rejoined, "before you finally decide that question."

The proposal appeared to excite his curiosity. He nodded his head. I
took Pesca's acknowledgment of the receipt of my letter out of my
pocket-book, handed it to him at arm's length, and returned to my
former position in front of the fireplace.

He read the lines aloud: "Your letter is received. If I don't hear
from you before the time you mention, I will break the seal when the
clock strikes."

Another man in his position would have needed some explanation of those
words--the Count felt no such necessity. One reading of the note
showed him the precaution that I had taken as plainly as if he had been
present at the time when I adopted it. The expression of his face
changed on the instant, and his hand came out of the drawer empty.

"I don't lock up my drawer, Mr. Hartright," he said, "and I don't say
that I may not scatter your brains about the fireplace yet. But I am a
just man even to my enemy, and I will acknowledge beforehand that they
are cleverer brains than I thought them. Come to the point, sir! You
want something of me?"

"I do, and I mean to have it."

"On conditions?"

"On no conditions."

His hand dropped into the drawer again.

"Bah! we are travelling in a circle," he said, "and those clever brains
of yours are in danger again. Your tone is deplorably imprudent,
sir--moderate it on the spot! The risk of shooting you on the place
where you stand is less to me than the risk of letting you out of this
house, except on conditions that I dictate and approve. You have not
got my lamented friend to deal with now--you are face to face with
Fosco! If the lives of twenty Mr. Hartrights were the stepping-stones
to my safety, over all those stones I would go, sustained by my sublime
indifference, self-balanced by my impenetrable calm. Respect me, if
you love your own life! I summon you to answer three questions before
you open your lips again. Hear them--they are necessary to this
interview. Answer them--they are necessary to ME." He held up one
finger of his right hand. "First question!" he said. "You come here
possessed of information which may be true or may be false--where did
you get it?"

"I decline to tell you."

"No matter--I shall find out. If that information is true--mind I say,
with the whole force of my resolution, if--you are making your market
of it here by treachery of your own or by treachery of some