He could not keep it all. He would feel
like the despoiler of the widow and the orphan. Nor would it be
fair to Claire to give it all up. If he halved the legacy
everybody would be satisfied.
That at least had been his view until Elizabeth's reply had
arrived. It was this reply that lay on the table--a brief, formal
note, setting forth Miss Boyd's absolute refusal to accept any
portion of the money. This was a development which Bill had not
foreseen, and he was feeling baffled. What was the next step? He
had smoked many pipes in the endeavour to find an answer to this
problem, and was lighting another when the door-bell rang.
He opened the door and found himself confronting an extraordinarily
tall and thin young man in evening-dress.
Lord Dawlish was a little startled. He had taken it for granted,
when the bell rang, that his visitor was Tom, the liftman from
downstairs, a friendly soul who hailed from London and had been
dropping in at intervals during the past two days to acquire the
latest news from his native land. He stared at this changeling
inquiringly. The solution of the mystery came with the stranger's
first words--
'Is Gates in?'
He spoke eagerly, as if Gates were extremely necessary to his
well-being. It distressed Lord Dawlish to disappoint him, but
there was nothing else to be done.
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