“For a moment, on Tuesday last; he came up here to learn if you had arrived, or when you might be expected. He seemed disappointed when I said not before the latter end of the week, and muttered something about being too late. He seemed flurried and excited. I heard afterwards that he had been somehow mixed up with that tumultuous assemblage that resisted the police, and I offered to go back with him to Kilkieran, but he stopped me short, saying, 'I am not at Kilkieran;' and so abruptly as to show that my proposal was not acceptable. He then sat down and wrote a short letter, which he desired me to give you on arriving; but to deliver it with my own hand, as, if any reply were necessary, I should be ready to carry it to him. This is the letter.” Repton read it rapidly, and then, walking to the window, stood pondering over the contents. “You know this man Merl, don't you, Massingbred?” asked Repton. “Yes, thoroughly.” “The object of this letter is to try one last chance for an arrangement. Barry suspects that the Jew's ambition for Irish proprietorship may have been somewhat dashed by the experience of the last few days; that he will be likely enough to weigh the advantages and disadvantages with a juster appreciation than if he had never come here, and, if such be the case, we are ready to meet with a fair and equitable offer. We'll repay him all that he advanced in cash to young Martin, and all that he won from him at play, if he surrender his reversionary claim. We'll ask no questions as to how this loan was made, or how that debt incurred. It shall be the briefest of all transactions,--a sum in simple addition, and a check for the total.” “He'll refuse,--flatly refuse it,” said Massingbred. “The very offer will restore any confidence the last few days may have shaken; he'll judge the matter like the shares of a stock that are quoted higher in the market.” “You think so?” “I'm sure of it. I'm ashamed to say, Mr. Repton, that my knowledge of the Herman Merl class may be greater than yours. It is the one solitary point in the realm of information wherein I am probably your superior.” “There are others, and of a very different order, in which I would own you the master,” said Repton. “But to our case. Suppose,--a mere supposition, if you like,--but suppose that it could be demonstrated to Mr. Merl that his claim will be not only resisted, but defeated; that the right on which he relies is valueless,--the deed not worth the stamps it bears; that this offer is made to avoid a publicity and exposure far more injurious to him than to those who now shrink from it. What think you then?” “Simply that he'd not believe it! He'd say, and many others would say, 'If the right lay so incontestably with these others, they 'd not give some twenty thousand pounds to compromise what they could enforce for the mere cost of a trial.'” “Mr. Massingbred, too, would perhaps take the same view of the transaction,” said Repton, half tartly.