登陆注册
5620500000027

第27章

"Oh you don't require it--you've evidence enough.I speak of a sealed letter that I've been requested to deliver to her.""And you don't mean to?"

"There's only one consideration that would make me," I said.

Gravener's clear handsome eyes plunged into mine a minute, but evidently without fishing up a clue to this motive--a failure by which I was almost wounded."What does the letter contain?""It's sealed, as I tell you, and I don't know what it contains.""Why is it sent through you?"

"Rather than you?" I wondered how to put the thing."The only explanation I can think of is that the person sending it may have imagined your relations with Miss Anvoy to be at an end--may have been told this is the case by Mrs.Saltram.""My relations with Miss Anvoy are not at an end," poor Gravener stammered.

Again for an instant I thought."The offer I propose to make you gives me the right to address you a question remarkably direct.

Are you still engaged to Miss Anvoy?"

"No, I'm not," he slowly brought out."But we're perfectly good friends.""Such good friends that you'll again become prospective husband and wife if the obstacle in your path be removed?""Removed?" he anxiously repeated.

"If I send Miss Anvoy the letter I speak of she may give up her idea.""Then for God's sake send it!"

"I'll do so if you're ready to assure me that her sacrifice would now presumably bring about your marriage.""I'd marry her the next day!" my visitor cried.

"Yes, but would she marry YOU? What I ask of you of course is nothing less than your word of honour as to your conviction of this.If you give it me," I said, "I'll engage to hand her the letter before night."Gravener took up his hat; turning it mechanically round he stood looking a moment hard at its unruffled perfection.Then very angrily honestly and gallantly, "Hand it to the devil!" he broke out; with which he clapped the hat on his head and left me.

"Will you read it or not?" I said to Ruth Anvoy, at Wimbledon, when I had told her the story of Mrs.Saltram's visit.

She debated for a time probably of the briefest, but long enough to make me nervous."Have you brought it with you?""No indeed.It's at home, locked up."

There was another great silence, and then she said "Go back and destroy it."I went back, but I didn't destroy it till after Saltram's death, when I burnt it unread.The Pudneys approached her again pressingly, but, prompt as they were, The Coxon Fund had already become an operative benefit and a general amaze: Mr.Saltram, while we gathered about, as it were, to watch the manna descend, had begun to draw the magnificent income.He drew it as he had always drawn everything, with a grand abstracted gesture.Its magnificence, alas, as all the world now knows, quite quenched him;it was the beginning of his decline.It was also naturally a new grievance for his wife, who began to believe in him as soon as he was blighted, and who at this hour accuses us of having bribed him, on the whim of a meddlesome American, to renounce his glorious office, to become, as she says, like everybody else.The very day he found himself able to publish he wholly ceased to produce.This deprived us, as may easily be imagined, of much of our occupation, and especially deprived the Mulvilles, whose want of self-support Inever measured till they lost their great inmate.They've no one to live on now.Adelaide's most frequent reference to their destitution is embodied in the remark that dear far-away Ruth's intentions were doubtless good.She and Kent are even yet looking for another prop, but no one presents a true sphere of usefulness.

They complain that people are self-sufficing.With Saltram the fine type of the child of adoption was scattered, the grander, the elder style.They've got their carriage back, but what's an empty carriage? In short I think we were all happier as well as poorer before; even including George Gravener, who by the deaths of his brother and his nephew has lately become Lord Maddock.His wife, whose fortune clears the property, is criminally dull; he hates being in the Upper House, and hasn't yet had high office.But what are these accidents, which I should perhaps apologise for mentioning, in the light of the great eventual boon promised the patient by the rate at which The Coxon Fund must be rolling up?

End

同类推荐
  • 佛说优婆夷堕舍迦经

    佛说优婆夷堕舍迦经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 亲征录

    亲征录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 郡务稍简因得整比旧

    郡务稍简因得整比旧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛般泥洹经

    佛般泥洹经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 无量寿经优波提舍

    无量寿经优波提舍

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 快穿之带上金手指吃瓜

    快穿之带上金手指吃瓜

    死后得到一份工作,哦豁,成为一名快穿任务者,还带着令大部分人都眼红的金手指。主角们别担心,我就是来当个吃瓜群众,不参合你们......然而,只要是在主角们的四周,那就逃不过剧情的发展。天知道,我就真的来吃瓜的,请放过。注:女主并不弱,也不是特别强。作者玻璃心,只想好好的更文。
  • 九世忘情决

    九世忘情决

    传说中九界共有九位大帝,分别为酒帝、余帝、鬼帝、天帝、叶帝......各位大帝都修炼不同的道路,不同的功法,而世间最强大的乃是《九世忘情决》也正因为这本功法,导致九位大帝都卷入轮回,生命岌岌可危.......谁能存活?谁能再次站上巅峰?
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 神路断

    神路断

    两千年前,世间所有神明忽然全部消失,连成神之路也彻底断绝。世间从此无神,只留下关于神明的传说和遗迹。直到他的出现。。。。。。
  • 我的机械奴仆或者女友

    我的机械奴仆或者女友

    我是一个穷屌丝,本想平静过完一生,可惜生活多出来个淘气鬼,就知道欺负我……
  • 彼岸的花与叶

    彼岸的花与叶

    “彼岸的花,开彼岸,花开之时,便是叶落之时。”叶觉得此生能默默守着花,是一生中莫大的幸运。而花却从不知叶的存在,直到花与叶的相见......
  • 军情七处(第三部):圣热内罗复仇记

    军情七处(第三部):圣热内罗复仇记

    亚马逊热销榜长期名列前茅作品《军情七处》系列第三部。各国情报机关相互角力,意大利政坛暗流涌动,全球帮派争相潜入,各方势力齐聚威尼斯,传说争夺焦点是身患绝症的女艺术家茱蒂塔·坎赛利里和她的作品《上帝的恐惧》。这座水上之城将会掀起何种腥风血雨……
  • 超忆少女

    超忆少女

    大脑里的恶性肿瘤,却让我意外获得了闪电般超人的记忆!生命进入倒计时。我,超忆少女!准备绝地反击!
  • 孤沐成舟

    孤沐成舟

    呆萌中文系周舟与好冷校草学霸叶子沐因一场意外而产生交集,两个人或是打打闹闹或是甜甜蜜蜜,且看高冷男神如何走进周舟的内心。
  • 持剑笑尘录

    持剑笑尘录

    少年侠气,交结五都雄。肝胆洞,毛发耸,立谈中,死生同,一诺千金重。