It is rough on me, I own, but you’ve a perfect right to do as you like, and I shall accept my fate quietly. Let’s have a drink and shake hands.’
Gurth poured out some brandy—a little for himself, nearly a tumblerful for Ralph.
‘Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Egerton,’ said Gurth, raising his glass and sipping the contents.
‘Gertie—God bless her!’ said Ralph, pouring half the raw liquor down his throat.
He put the glass down and came across to Gurth.
‘Gurth, my boy,’ he said, with a foolish smile, ‘I forgive you. I was jolly rude just now, wasn’t I? God bless you!’
And thereupon Ralph grew quite confidential, and shook hands over and over again with his cousin; and Gurth learned that the marriage was a secret as yet, that Josh didn’t know anything about it, and that Ralph had the certificate among his papers upstairs.
That night Ralph was at Heckett’s, and a quarrel arose over cards. Shortly afterwards he was buried, on the certificate of Dr. Oliver Birnie, and his fortune passed into the hands of Gurth Egerton, in accordance with the old misers will; for Gertie lay out of her mind and dying slowly, and no one but Gurth himself knew of the marriage certificate.
Gurth Egerton, recovering rapidly under the kind surgeon’s care from the illness which his shipwreck and long immersion had caused, sat on the deck of the Diana and thought out his plans for the future.