 omega, Interest.
    If Madame Walravens was hideous as a Hindoo idol, she seemed also to
possess, in the estimation of these her votaries, an idol's consequence. The
fact was, she had been rich - very rich; and though for the present, without the
command of money, she was likely one day to be rich again. At Basseterre, in
Guadaloupe, she possessed a large estate, received in dowry on her marriage
sixty years ago, sequestered since her husband's failure; but now, it was
supposed, cleared of claim, and, if duly looked after by a competent agent of
integrity, considered capable of being made, in a few years, largely productive.
    Père Silas took an interest in this prospective improvement for the sake of
religion and the church, whereof Magloire Walravens was a devout daughter.
Madame Beck, distantly related to the hunchback, and knowing her to be without
family of her own, had long brooded over contingencies with a mother's
calculating forethought, and, harshly treated as she was by Madame Walravens,
never ceased to court her for interest's sake. Madame Beck and the priest were
thus, for money reasons, equally and sincerely interested in the nursing of the
West-Indian estate.
    But the distance was great, and the climate hazardous. The competent and
upright agent wanted, must be a devoted man. Just such a man had Madame
Walravens retained for twenty years in her service, blighting his life, and then
living on him, like an old fungus; such a man had Père Silas trained, taught,
and bound to him by the ties of gratitude, habit, and belief. Such a man Madame
Beck knew, and could in some measure influence. »My pupil,« said Père Silas, »if
he remains in Europe, runs risk of apostacy, for he has become entangled with a
heretic.« Madame Beck made also her private comment, and preferred in her own
breast her secret reason for desiring expatriation. The thing she could not
obtain, she desired not another to win; rather would she destroy it. As to
Madame Walravens, she wanted her money and her land, and knew Paul, if he liked,
could make the best and faithfullest steward; so the three self-seekers banded
and beset the one unselfish. They reasoned, they appealed, they implored; on his
mercy they cast themselves, into his hands they confidingly thrust their
interests. They asked but two or three years of devotion - after that, he should
live for himself: one of the number, perhaps
