Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Nobility -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
"Sir Hubert never struck me as insane," retorted Jarwin, putting the
disputed will into his black leather bag. "A man who can make two
million pounds in so short a space of time can scarcely be called
crazy."
"But this masquerading as a gypsy and a burglar," urged Garvington
irritably.
"He was actually a gypsy, remember, my lord, and it was natural that he
should wish occasionally to get back to the life he loved. As to his
being a burglar, I venture to disagree with you. He had some reason to
visit this house at the hour and in the manner he did, and doubtless if
he had lived he would have explained. But whatever might have been his
motive, Lord Garvington, I am certain it was not connected with
robbery."
"Well," snapped the fat little man candidly, "if I had known that Pine
was such a blighter as to leave me nothing, I'm hanged if I'd have
allowed him to be buried in such decent company."
"Freddy, Freddy, the poor man is dead. Let him rest," said Lady
Garvington, who looked more limp and untidy than ever.
"I wish he was resting somewhere else than in my vault. A damned
gypsy!"
"And my husband," said Lady Agnes sharply. "Don't forget that,
Garvington."
"I wish I could forget it. Much use he has been to us."
"_You_ have no cause to complain," said his sister with a meaning
glance, and Garvington suddenly subsided.
"Won't you say something, Noel?" asked Lady Garvington dismally.
"I don't see what there is to say," he rejoined, not lifting his eyes
from the ground.
"There you are wrong," remarked Agnes with a sudden flush. "There is a
very great deal to say, but this is not the place to say it. Mr.
Jarwin," she rose to her feet, looking a queenly figure in her long
black robes, "you can return to town and later will receive my
instructions."
The lawyer looked hard at her marble face, wondering whether she would
choose the lover or the money. It was a hard choice, and a very
difficult position. He could not read in her eyes what she intended to
do, so mutely bowed and took a ceremonious departure, paying a silent
tribute to the widow's strength of mind. "Poor thing; poor thing,"
thought the solicitor, "I believe she loves her cousin. It is hard that
she can only marry him at the cost of becoming a pauper. A difficult
position for her, indeed. H'm! she'll hold on to the money, of course;
no woman would be such a fool as to pay two millions sterling for a
husband."
In relation to nine women out of ten, this view would have been a
reasonable one to take, but Agnes happened to be the tenth, who had the
singular taste--madness some would have called it--to prefer love to
hard cash. Still, she made no hasty decision, seeing that the issues
involved in her renunciation were so great. Garvington, showing a
characteristic want of tact, began to argue the question almost the
moment Jarwin drove away from The Manor, but his sister promptly
declined to enter into any discussion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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