Not so, however, when he had listened to Bartley's proposal, Hope's answer, and all that followed.
Then he put this and Colonel Clifford's communication together, and saw the terrible importance of the two things combined.

Thus, as a congenital worm grew with Jonah's gourd, and was sure to destroy it, Bartley's bold and elaborate scheme was furnished from the outset with a most dangerous enemy.
Leonard Monckton was by nature a schemer and by habit a villain, and he was sure to put this discovery to profit.

He came out of the little office and sat down at his desk, and fell into a brown-study.
He was not a little puzzled, and here lay his difficulty.

Two attractive villainies presented themselves to his ingenious mind, and he naturally hesitated between them.

One was to levy black-mail on Bartley; the other, to sell the secret to the Cliffords.
But there was a special reason why he should incline toward the Cliffords, and, whilst he is in his brown-study, we will let the reader into his secret.
This artful person had immediately won the confidence of young Clifford, calling himself Bolton, and had prepared a very heartless trap for him.
He introduced to him a most beautiful young woman--tall, dark, with oval face and glorious black eyes and eyebrows, a slight foreign accent, and ingratiating manners.