The advocate saw that he had made an impression, and with the marvelous skill which his knowledge of those natures that engaged his study bestowed on his intelligence, he continued to improve his cause by such representations as were likely to be most effective. With what admirable tact he avoided panegyric of Frank as the mere individual, and drew him rather as the type, the ideal of what a woman in Beatrice's position might desire in the safety, peace, and honor of a home, in the trust and constancy, and honest confiding love of its partner! He did not paint an elysium; he described a haven; he did not glowingly delineate a hero of romance--he soberly portrayed that representative of the Respectable and the Real which a woman turns to when romance begins to seem to her but delusion. Verily, if you could have looked into the heart of the person he addressed, and heard him speak, you would have cried admiringly, "Knowledge _is_ power; and this man, if as able on a larger field of action, should play no mean part in the history of his time." Slowly Beatrice roused herself from the reveries which crept over her as he spoke--slowly, and with a deep sigh, and said, "Well, well, grant all you say; at least before I can listen to so honorable a love, I must be relieved from the base and sordid pressure that weighs on me. I can not say to the man who wooes me, 'Will you pay the debts of the daughter of Franzini, and the widow of di Negra?'" "Nay, your debts, surely, make so slight a portion of your dowry." "But the dowry has to be secured;" and here, turning the tables upon her companion, as the apt proverb expresses it, Madame di Negra extended her hand to Randal, and said in her most winning accents, "You are, then, truly and sincerely my friend?" "Can you doubt it?" "I prove that I do not, for I ask your assistance." "Mine? How?" "Listen; my brother has arrived in London--" "I see that arrival announced in the papers." "And he comes, empowered by the consent of the Emperor, to ask the hand of a relation and countrywoman of his; an alliance that will heal long family dissensions, and add to his own fortunes those of an heiress. My brother, like myself, has been extravagant. The dowry which by law he still owes me it would distress him to pay till this marriage be assured." "I understand," said Randal. "But how can I aid this marriage?" "By assisting us to discover the bride. She, with her father, sought refuge and concealment in England." "The father had, then, taken part in some political disaffections, and was proscribed?" "Exactly so; and so well has he concealed himself that he has baffled all our efforts to discover his retreat. My brother can obtain him his pardon in cementing this alliance--" "Proceed." "Ah, Randal, Randal, is this the frankness of friendship? You know that I have before sought to obtain the secret of our relation's retreat--sought in vain to obtain it from Mr. Egerton who assuredly knows it--"