"
"Well, now, you are assuming that he is a murderer."
"I have every reason to believe that he is, and I think the evidence can
be secured to convict him; but why should he seek to marry your niece?"
"He knows she is an heiress--yes, a great heiress. She is heir to
millions, and will have the money in her own right without any restraint
upon her use or misuse of it whatever."
"When?"
"When she becomes of age."
"How old is she now?"
"In about three years she will come into absolute possession of her
fortune."
"And this man, you think, has bewitched her?"
"I do."
"And yet she denied ever having met him."
"I know it, and I will say this in her favor; she is a noble and
truthful girl. She believes that wretch innocent. She thinks I am
unwarrantably prejudiced, and that under the circumstances it is not
wrong to deceive me. She thinks he is a wronged young man. She has been
assailed on a woman's weakest side--her sympathies."
"Have you positive evidence that the young man is the villain you
believe him to be?"
"Not positive evidence, not convicting evidence; that is what I want you
to obtain.
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