“How can I describe to you the sensations of the poor cashier as he beheld this amazing beauty!  He could hardly stammer out a few incoherent words; and the gentleman and the young lady had long since left, when he was still lost in a kind of idiotic delight.  He had been overtaken by one of those overwhelming passions which sometimes felled to the ground the strongest and simplest of men at the age of forty.

“Alas!  Sarah had but too keenly noticed the impression she had produced.  To be sure, Malgat was very far from that ideal of a millionaire husband of whom these adventurers dreamed; but, after all, he held the keys of a safe in which lay millions.  One might always get something out of him wherewith to wait for better things to come.  Their plan was soon formed.

“The very next day M. Elgin presented himself alone at the office to ask for some information.  He returned three days after with another draft.  By the end of the week, he had furnished Malgat with an opportunity to render him some trifling service.  Thus relations began to exist between them; and, at the end of a fortnight, Sir Thorn could, with all propriety, ask the cashier to dine with him in Circus Street.  A voice from within—­one of those presentiments to which we ought always to listen—­warned Malgat not to accept the invitation; but he was already no longer his own master.

“He went to dinner in Circus Street, and he left it madly in love.

“He had felt as if Sarah Brandon’s eyes had been all the time upon him,—­those strange, sublimely beautiful eyes, which upset our very being within us, weakening the most powerful energy, troubling the senses, and leading reason astray—­eyes which dazzle, enchant, and bewitch.

“The commonest politeness required that Malgat should call upon Mrs. Brian and M. Elgin.  This call was followed by many others.  A man less blinded by passion might have become suspicious at the eagerness with which these wretches, driven by necessity, carried on their intrigue.  Six weeks after their first meeting, Malgat fancied that Sarah was wildly in love with him.  It was absurd, most assuredly; it was foolish, insane.  Nevertheless, he believed it.  He thought those rapturous glances were genuine; he believed in the truthfulness of that intoxicating sweetness of her voice, and those enchanting blushes, which his coming never failed to call forth.

“Now began the second act of the hideous comedy.  Mrs. Brian appeared one day, all of a sudden, to notice something, and promptly requested Malgat never to put foot again within that house.  She accused him of an attempt to seduce Sarah Brandon.  I dare say, you can imagine, the fool! how he protested, affirming the purity of his intentions, and swearing that he would be the happiest of mortals if they would condescend to grant him the hand of her niece.  But Sir Thorn, in the haughtiest tone possible, asked him how he could dare think of such a thing, and presume that he could ever be a fit match for a young lady who had a dower of two hundred thousand dollars.