“Business!” replied Mr. Elmore, producing his spectacles, and deliberately placing them athwart his nose,
“‘His mane edictum, post prandia Callirhoen, etc.
“Business in the morning, and the ladies after dinner. Well, Sir, I will yield to you in the one, and you must yield to me in the other: I will open the letter, and you shall dine here, and be introduced to Mrs. Elmore;--What is your opinion of the modern method of folding letters? I--but I see you are impatient.” Here Mr. Elmore at length broke the seal; and to Walter’s great joy fairly read the contents within.
“Oh! I see, I see!” he said, refolding the epistle, and placing it in his pocket-book; “my friend, Dr. Hebraist, says you are anxious to be informed whether Mr. Clarke ever received the legacy of my poor cousin, Colonel Elmore; and if so, any tidings I can give you of Mr. Clarke himself; or any clue to discover him will be highly acceptable. I gather, Sir, from my friend’s letter, that this is the substance of your business with me, caput negotii;--although, like Timanthes, the painter, he leaves more to be understood than is described, ‘intelligitur plus quam pingitur,’ as Pliny has it.”
“Sir,” said Walter, drawing his chair close to Mr. Elmore, and his anxiety forcing itself to his countenance, “that is indeed the substance of my business with you; and so important will be any information you can give me that I shall esteem it a--” “Not a very great favour, eh?--not very great?”
“I hope not, Sir; for what says Tacitus--that profound reader of the human heart,--‘beneficia eo usque loeta sunt,’ favours easily repaid beget affection--favours beyond return engender hatred. But, Sir, a truce to trifling;” and here Mr. Elmore composed his countenance, and changed,--which he could do at will, so that the change was not expected to last long--the pedant for the man of business.
“Mr. Clarke did receive his legacy: the lease of the house at Knaresborough was also sold by his desire, and produced the sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds; which being added to the farther sum of a thousand pounds, which was bequeathed to him, amounted to seventeen hundred and fifty pounds. It so happened, that my cousin had possessed some very valuable jewels, which were bequeathed to myself. I, Sir, studious, and a cultivator of the Muse, had no love and no use for these baubles; I preferred barbaric gold to barbaric pearl; and knowing that Clarke had been in India, from whence these jewels had been brought, I showed them to him, and consulted his knowledge on these matters, as to the best method of obtaining a sale. He offered to purchase them of me, under the impression that he could turn them to a profitable speculation in London. Accordingly we came to terms: I sold the greater part of them to him for a sum a little exceeding a thousand pounds. He was pleased with his bargain; and came to borrow the rest of me, in order to look at them more considerately at home, and determine whether or not he should buy them also. Well, Sir, (but here comes the remarkable part of the story,) about three days after this last event, Mr. Clarke and my jewels both disappeared in rather a strange and abrupt manner. In the middle of the night he left his lodging at Knaresborough, and never returned; neither himself nor my jewels were ever heard of more!”