The Ashiel mystery : $b a detective storyBryce, Marion
General
The Ashiel mystery : $b a detective story
Bryce, Marion
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
"We will go by the road, if you don't mind," she said, "the lochside is
rather rough for me. I have been paying a visit of charity, and very hard
work it is paying visits in the country when you don't keep a conveyance
of any kind, and I really can't afford even a donkey. You see the
Judge's income died with him, poor dear, in spite of those foolish
sayings about not being able to take your money with you to the better
land, where I am sure one would want it just as much as anywhere else,
for the better life you lead, the more expensive it is. No one could be
generous, or charitable, or unselfish, with nothing to give up or to give
away. That's only common sense, and I always say that common sense is
such a help when called upon to face problems of a religious kind.
"My uncle was a bishop and a very learned theologian, I assure you; but
he always held that it was impious to apply plain common sense to matters
so far above us, and that is why he and my poor husband were never on
speaking terms; not from any fault of the Judge's, who had been trained
to think about logic and all that kind of thing which is so useful to
people at the Bar.
"But it takes all sorts to make a world, as he often used to say to
himself, and if every one was exactly alike one would feel almost as
solitary as if the whole earth was empty and void, while, as for virtues
and good qualities, they would automatically cease to exist, so that a
really good man would simply long to go to hell and have some opportunity
to show his goodness. That always seemed very reasonable to me, but I am
just telling you what my husband used to say, because I really don't know
much about these things, and he was such a clever man, and what he said
was always listened to with great interest and respect at the Old Bailey.
If it hadn't been, of course he would have cleared the court.
"But as I was telling you, his money went with him, though I know he
always meant to insure his life, which is such a boring thing to think of
when a man has many calls on his purse. And so, I live, as you see, in a
very quiet way up here, and sometimes get down to the South for a month
or six weeks in the winter, where I have many kind friends. But I find
the hills rather trying to my legs as time goes on, and I don't very
often walk as far as I have to-day. Still charity, as they say, covers a
multitude of miles, and I really thought it my duty to come and see how
poor Mark was bearing up all alone at Inverashiel. I was afraid he would
be terribly unhappy, poor boy, so soon after the funeral, and Juliet
Byrne having refused him, and everything. Though of course he can't be
pitied for inheriting Inverashiel, such a lovely place, is it not? And
quantities of property in the coal district, you know, besides. He is
really a very lucky young man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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