Did Blanche mean to accept
or to refuse his polite offer? Her phrases either meant that Pen did
not love her, and she declined him, or that she took him, and
sacrificed herself to him, cold as he was. He laughed sardonically
over the letter, and over the transaction which occasioned it. He
laughed to think how Fortune had jilted him, and how he deserved his
slippery fortune. He turned over and over the musky, gilt-edged
riddle. It amused his humor: he enjoyed it as if it had been a
funny story.
He was thus seated, twiddling the queer manuscript in his hand, joking
grimly to himself, when his servant came in with a card from a
gentleman, who wished to speak to him very particularly. And if Pen
had gone out into the passage, he would have seen sucking his stick,
rolling his eyes, and showing great marks of anxiety, his old
acquaintance, Mr. Samuel Huxter.
"Mr. Huxter on particular business! Pray, beg Mr. Huxter to come in,"
said Pen, amused rather; and not the less so when poor Sam appeared
before him.
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