"Yes; we'll take that for granted; please go on."
"I'm going on as fast as ever I can; but it'll only be another case of more haste worse speed if you won't let me tell my tale my own way, because, if I don't, I'm nearly sure to leave out essential details. Among other things he remarked that, one day, you'd be a rich young woman."
"You're sure he said that?"
"Quite; your father could express himself clearly enough if he chose; and he expressed himself clearly then."
"But--I don't understand."
"Wait a bit; I'm going to make you understand, if you'll have a little patience. Later, I cannot say that he said so clearly, but he intimated, that he obtained his income from some business with which he was connected, and which represented to him a large sum of money."
"Business! I didn't know that he had anything to do with any business."
"Mind, he didn't state definitely that he had; and I asked no questions, but that was what he hinted. Then he said something which, in the light of recent events, appears to me to have been rather remarkable. He observed that life was always uncertain; that one could never tell the hour when one would die, and that, therefore, since I was going to be the husband of his only child, he would like to place in my hands directions as to what he would desire to have done, in case death took him unawares; or before he completed certain arrangements which he then had in view."
"What a strange thing for him to say!"
"You see how necessary it was that I should see you face to face, and how difficult it would have been to put this on to paper? Nora, I love you!"