A Duel

unbroken for some sec

do you think

hat sort of thing's a question of taste. I tell you what I do think beautiful--that's these dia

es for the picture that was in it. If you like I'll tell you who she is and all about her.

me one she fancied more than you. Men always do think tha

she liked better than m

it turns out to be a blessing. But, o

name--I won't tell you her name--though wh

ch, i

other English. He was my dear

ghter, then a mere ch

was a mere child. You seem to have

. I'm more

hould i

ot--warmed your withered heart. When she attained to womanhood you breathed to her the secret of your passion, which she had spotted about eighteen years before; but as she did

dn't have told it

not even have altered the will which you had made in her favour, and which you kept shaking in her face; only when she took up with another chap she seemed to be coming it a bit too thick. You cried in your a

altog

anted her to be your wife you were anything like what

acquired a reall

as. Any man with a touch of spice in him would give the eyes out of his he

re a question of taste. So you think she

y a thing like you! You ought to h

ay not be wholly incorrect, and that, therefore, it was f

don

nt of view. From mine it is fortunate that I hav

e a will, when you can't

structions. You will find that I'm capable

nd on what the

mpression that if I die without a will--

nough, don't

age is a marriage--as to which I say nothing either one way or the other--if I die in

u any re

the whole

ou bet

bet you

o what you leave behind

t more than half of my personal property, and a thir

ld me that if I married you I should have tw

ibly the man in the bed was considering what answ

is much: If all I possess--land, houses, shares and so on--were to be turned into

thousand po

over--just when money is of as little use to him as pictures to the blind. I have been denied most things except fortune. Sounds ironical, doesn't it? As with Midas, everything I have touched has turned to gold--in my case a thing wholly worthless. I never made a bad money speculation in my life. I doubt if I ever

his, without a horse in the stable,

rvant wouldn't be able to endure the sight of such an object as I am. All I need is a bed to lie on, some one to put food between my lips, money to pay for it. Si

ago she had told herself that a certain and clear five pounds a week earned by singing and dancing at the minor music halls would be her idea of fortune. She had married that deceitful humbug, Gregory Lamb, because she believed that he might possibly have as much

born of an idea which would have disposed most women to do more than tremble. Her breath came faster; her eyes brightened; someth

asked, without t

ke a will, what wo

show

he

ce in this room. If you tried do

d it fas

find

t of plac

It's in the wall, concealed by a panel of wood. Now I've

s there might be fi

re m

wever long it might take me I'd find it. I'd str

ou've hawk's eyes; I've given you a hint; can't you make a likely

nd there, allowing nothing to escape them. When they had traversed the whol

me? There really is

reall

's behind a pan

t's

were four, two longer and two shorter, each supporting a shelf on which there were ornaments. She wondered if the posts would turn. Probably something recurred to her mind which she had read about a movable post, t

t her to pay too much attention to the fireplace. She waited for him to continue, which he did at once. "You see the bracket in the corner on my left. Go to it. Take down the vase which stands upon it, then lift th

ork, three or four inches wide, and about a foot in lengt

e in it, a blue env

ers had apparently been written by a feminine hand. "This envelope contains Cuthbert Grahame's will, a

the envelope, although I don't happen to be dead. Take out the paper

ing was identical with the cram

nd personal estate, to Margaret Wallace, absolutely, for her sole use and benef

date at the top that was

t drafted in a lawyer's office. Nannie wrote it down to my dictation--at that table over by the window there. She doesn't write a very excellent fist, but

s enough to put Margaret Wallace into undispute

de it so much waste-paper. You may tear it up, or keep it if yo

ou going to

ate will be different. It's the dat

oing to leave

shoul

f I married you I should ha

le for what Dr. Tw

only brought me up so that you might die in pe

lent, possibly con

amply repay you for what you've done-

s! Listen to me--

that on some pr

'm you

already become

'm the mistress of this house, and no one sets foot in it--

one? We s

u make it that." As, when she stopped, he was silent, she again went on: "If you don't let me add such a sentence you shall make no will at all--as sure as I'm alive I swear you shan't. I'll have my bed brought in here to stop you doing it at night--you may trust me to take

ht do your best in that direction--fr

an bet

identical in all respects with the one you have in your hand, if I allow you to add a

u're to underst

me to sign it in the pre

ist you a

money for what you've done, and for the sort of woman y

e word I'll do

pause, then he repeated

, if you please. Close the panel; replace the bracket and the vase. You may take the will with you if you lik