Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/235

Rh enjoying, as he had done, the sparkling wood fire, she reflected gratefully upon the goodness of these refined and simple-minded people—but she also reflected with much bitterness upon the extremely slim prospect of her getting any money from Mr. Romaine. She had fully counted upon his dread of ridicule, his fear of publicity, to induce him to hand over a considerable sum of money; but she had not in the least counted upon what she considered his truly diabolical offer to come up to his word. To marry Mr. Romaine! She could have brought herself to it, reflecting that he could not live forever; but those few words he whispered to her showed her that it was out of her power to get any money at his death. She believed what he told her—it was so thoroughly characteristic of him—and she would by no means risk the horrors of marrying this embodied whim with that probability hanging over her. She turned it over and over in her mind, wearily, until past midnight, when she tossed to and fro until the gray dawn shone upon the snow-covered world.

But Mr. Romaine suffered from more than sleeplessness that night. The Chessinghams guessed from the accounts given by the ser-