American fiction -- 19th century; Manners and customs -- Fiction
"You'll not have another chance," said Ferdinand. "I'm not good for more
than two days yet. Tell them to go out. I wish to see you alone. I
wouldn't have sent for you, but, now that you're here, I might as well
take advantage of it."
"Have you anything particular to say?" asked Knight, kindly.
"O, come," said Mason, with a smile which he meant to be good-natured,
but which was only ghastly; "you're not going to be jealous of me at
this time of day."
Knight looked at Miss Hofmann for permission, and then left the room
with the nurse. But a minute had hardly elapsed before Miss Hofmann
hurried into the adjoining apartment, with her face pale and
discomposed.
"Go to him!" she exclaimed. "He's dying!"
When they reached him he was dead.
In the course of a few days his will was opened, and Knight came to the
knowledge of his legacy. "He was a good, generous fellow," he said to
Mrs. Mason and Miss Hofmann, "and I shall never be satisfied that he
mightn't have recovered. It was a most extraordinary case." He was
considerate enough of his audience to abstain from adding that he would
give a great deal to have been able to make an autopsy. Miss Hofmann's
wedding was, of course, not deferred. She was married in September,
"very quietly." It seemed to her lover, in the interval, that she was
very silent and thoughtful. But this was natural under the
circumstances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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