When we were lads together you saved my life at the imminent risk of your own. The time has now come when I can cancel the debt by saving yours.
To me life is a concern of little moment. So far as I know, I have not a single relative living, and were I to die tomorrow, there is not a being in the world, with the exception, maybe, of yourself, to whom that event would cause one pang of regret.
You, my dear Felix, are possessed of nearly everything which tends to make existence sweet to most persons. In your wife and daughter alone you have a double tie sufficient to cause a man to cling to this world with all his might.
Let me, then, for their dear sakes, if not for your own, most earnestly beg and entreat of you to accept the payment hereby offered of that just debt which has been so long owing, and which, I swear as Heaven is above me, will be joyfully discharged by
Your devoted and affectionate
Roden Marsh.
"Just as I thought," said Drelincourt, as he refolded the letter. "Dear, true hearted, simple minded old Rodd! And does he really dream for one moment that I either shall, can, or will accept the sacrifice he is so eager to consummate? Even after all these years, how little he knows me! No, my dear Rodd, neither you, nor Gumley, nor any one shall discharge that debt which is due from Felix Drelincourt alone. So, now to consider--to consider."
He lay back in his chair and closed his eyes, still holding Rodd's letter in his hand. He had sat thus for a matter of five or six minutes when the door was opened by Wicks.
"Sir John Musgrave and Mr. Ormsby to see you, sir."
"So! Where are they?"