And, with the words, she put her arms around her man’s neck before them all, and that so that she might hide the tears she could not repress, for she was much and for many reasons overcome.
“And what,” said Tuke, with a smile, “have you done with the trust, Betty?”
“Why,” said she, “I slipped it under my garter.”
CHAPTER LV.
“Well,” cried Creel, “you have sown your wild oats and reaped a whirlwind; and now at last is the calm; and you shall sit under your fig-tree and grow fat.”
“Never, my old friend. We shall come and go like the swallows, and build under the eaves of the world.”
“Aye, aye, and rear a brood at every visit, no doubt. Well, you have realized well on the famous stone, and can indulge a whimsey or so. And you can afford to waive title to the estate, and encumber me with a property I neither covet nor care for. But you are wise no doubt; and maybe you have that of the gambler’s instinct left you to know when the luck hath turned. And, if anything will convince me it has, Sir Robert, it is in the fact that that one rogue was spared for the gallows and to give evidence against himself in a near incredible story; which he did with so fine a tact of villainy as to startle virtuous truth out of conceit with itself.”
“Mr. Creel, Brander was not the first that missed his vocation of attorney.”
“A stale witticism, Sir Robert, that has its origin in the unreasoning petulance of unsuccessful litigants. Yet what man blames his broker that he takes his percentage equally in a good or bad speculation?”
“Why, I spoke the common cant thoughtlessly, sir, and only aimed at a laugh. I would ennoble all lawyers for your sake.”