The Governor looked at his watch. “Ah!” he exclaimed, “it is one o’clock
this very moment. Can it be that she is now taking this step? What can I
do to prevent this mad act? I will send her a message—where does she
live?—I have not the faintest idea. I will have Juan inquire.”
Juan appeared almost instantly after the Governor’s call.
“Do you know where Miss Motuble lives? The lady, I mean, who called here
early this morning?” asked the Governor.
“No, sir, I do not,” replied Juan, eying the Governor curiously.
“Find out, immediately. If necessary, employ a detective. I must know if
there is any possible way of finding out.”
“I will do my best, your Honor, my very best,” replied Juan, as he left
the room, shaking his head dubiously. The Governor followed him to the
door engrossed with his own thoughts.
“Juan,” he called, “here one moment.”
Juan returned and looked questioningly into his face.
“Go to my private study at once, and say to Señors Guillermo Gonzales
and Julio Murillo to do me the favor to meet me here this moment, if
they have the leisure. With dispatch, Juan, with dispatch.”
“Yes, your Honor,” replied Juan, as he hurried away.
Such a request had never been made to the scientists before, and without
any delay they hurried to the Governor, curious to know the object of
the call.
The door leading into the room was wide open, and as they entered, the
great author of “Liquid from the Sun’s Rays” stood in the middle of the
floor re-reading Marriet Motuble’s letter. He greeted them warmly, and
without any delay said: “I have received a very strange letter—no
stranger, however, than the person by whom it is written—the aggressive
señorita Marriet Motuble.”
“Marriet Motuble!” exclaimed both men in a low voice.
“Your surprise cannot possibly be greater than mine,” replied the
Governor. “Please reserve your surprise for what I will read you. In
fact, I am inclined to believe most anything, if what I have read of
this long letter be true. I am yet in ignorance of the nature of the
remainder of the letter. Be seated, friends, and I will start at the
beginning.”
The three great men sat down in a circle, and when the Governor had
re-read the first part of the letter and various comments had been made,
the Governor began reading where he had previously left off:
“I repeat that I, Marriet Motuble, this day at one o’clock will make an
end of my present earthly existence. Farewell, farewell, my adored one,
farewell. Although my great love for you was not reciprocated in this
life, I will live again and again. In the next life I hope to have
sufficient power to compel love to grow in your heart, in your great
noble breast, for me—for me alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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