'It is so disagreeable.'
'It would be more disagreeable for you if there were no money matters to discuss,' she replied with the smallest approach to a sneer. 'But, to the point, Hawkey—I know what it is!'
'You are not strong, you know, dear Deb; you may go off—' (the hooks, he was about to say, but changed his mind)—'off suddenly, and not leave your house well ordered. We should always be prepared for the worst. You know what the best doctors in Edinburgh have told you,' he added, burying his nose and moustache in the tumbler again.
'Well?' said she.
'I mean that you should execute that will you spoke of.'
'In your favour?'
'And so preclude all contention from any quarter—a hundred times I have hinted this to you.'
'How kind and soothing the reminder is!' she replied bitterly, unwilling, like all selfish people, to adopt or face the dire idea of death, sudden or otherwise.
'I do advise you to consider well, Deb.'
'For your sake, of course.'