"Wilkie Collins - The Evil Genius" - читать интересную книгу автора (Collins Wilkie)

I leave you to judge what the disappointment was! My lord (persuaded, as I
suspect, by the woman I mentioned just now) ran the risk of waiting another
year, and a year afterward, rather than be married. Through all that time, I had
no other child or prospect of a child. His lordship was fairly driven into
taking a wife. Ah, how I hate her! Their first child was a boy--a big, bouncing,
healthy brute of a boy! And six months afterward, my poor little fellow was
born. Only think of it! And tell me, Jemmy, don't I deserve to be a happy woman,
after suffering such a dreadful disappointment as that? Is it true that you're
going back to America?"
"Quite true."
"Take me back with you."
"With a couple of children?"
"No. Only with one. I can dispose of the other in England. Wait a little before
you say No. Do you want money?"
"You couldn't help me, if I did."
"Marry me, and I can help you to a fortune."
He eyed her attentively and saw that she was in earnest. "What do you call a
fortune?" he asked.
"Five thousand pounds," she answered.
His eyes opened; his mouth opened; he scratched his head. Even his impenetrable
nature proved to be capable of receiving a shock. Five thousand pounds! He asked
faintly for "a drop of brandy."
She had a bottle of brandy ready for him.
"You look quite overcome," she said.
He was too deeply interested in the restorative influence of the brandy to take
any notice of this remark. When he had recovered himself he was not disposed to
believe in the five thousand pounds.
"Where's the proof of it?" he said, sternly.
She produced her husband's letter. "Did you read the Trial of Westerfield for
casting away his ship?" she asked.
"I heard of it."
"Will you look at this letter?"
"Is it long?"
"Yes."
"Then suppose you read it to me."
He listened with the closest attention while she read. The question of stealing
the diamonds (if they could only be found) did not trouble either of them. It
was a settled question, by tacit consent on both sides. But the value in money
of the precious stones suggested a doubt that still weighed on his mind.
"How do you know they're worth five thousand pounds?" he inquired.
"You dear old stupid! Doesn't Westerfield himself say so in his letter?"
"Read that bit again."
She read it again: "After the two calamities of the loss of the ship, and the
disappearance of the diamonds--these last being valued at five thousand
pounds--I returned to England."
Satisfied so far, he wanted to look at the cipher next. She handed it to him
with a stipulation: "Yours, Jemmy, on the day when you marry me."
He put the slip of paper into his pocket. "Now I've got it," he said, "suppose I
keep it?"
A woman who has been barmaid at a public-house is a woman not easily found at