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Again, it might
be inferred that these two elderly gentlemen, choice representatives of
two conflicting civilizations, widely experienced and profoundly
versed, each in his own way, in the knowledge of mankind, took a
sincere and childlike pleasure in one another's society, going over
past times and anxious, to the very end of life, to add something fresh
to their store of learning.
Both these explanations were sufficiently plausible to be straightway
dismissed by the majority as inadequate to account for the phenomenon.
They inclined, rather, to adopt an alternative and alluring theory
propounded by the Commissioner's lady. This theory laid it down that
the American was bargaining for the Count's daughter, a pretty girl
whom the old ruffian had shut up in a convent somewhere in anticipation
of the day when a purchaser, rich enough to content his inordinate lust
for gold, should present himself. Van Koppen was that purchaser. They
had now been haggling, she said, for two or three years; a DENOUEMENT
might be expected at any moment.


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