‘Listen patiently for a few moments. For twenty-five years you have been a resident under my mother’s roof; during fifteen years of that time you have treated me as something more than a housekeeper; you have treated me as a friend. In return, I have been to you as a sister. I have watched over your comforts in health, have nursed you in sickness, and wasted all my young days in waiting for the moment when you would reward my life-long devotion by making me your wife.’
‘My wife!’ retorted Septimus angrily. ‘Ridiculous!’
‘Unless you do so,’ pursued Martha, ‘the second will will be put in force.’
‘And how do you propose to set aside that will, if you become my wife?’ exclaimed Septimus.
‘By simply putting it into the fire,’ replied Martha in a calm decided tone.
Now, it was almost instantaneously apparent to Martha that both she and Mr Bradbury had displayed a deplorable lack of judgment, when they unanimously came to the conclusion that Septimus Redgrave would eagerly seize the bait held out to him by the destruction of the second will. Selfish and avaricious he might be, but not sufficiently so to induce him to stain his conscience with the commission of so great a crime as that suggested to him by a man in dire extremity, and a woman who hoped to realise her life-long ambition by one grand coup.
‘You cannot mean what you say, Miss Jones, at least I hope not,’ exclaimed Septimus in a severe tone. ‘You have been led into this by that man Bradbury, whom I have always considered a great scoundrel.’
‘You refuse my offer then?’ said Martha in a voice pregnant with despair.
‘I will not condescend to answer you,’ said Septimus. ‘You had better return at once to London. I cannot offer you any hospitality. In the first place, my sisters have a strong prejudice against you, which I must say is not without warrant; and in the second place, I am engaged to be married to the mother of the fortunate legatee. So, if I do not become the possessor of the wealth of the late Colonel Redgrave, my wife’s daughter will inherit; so the money will still be in the family.—Good-morning.’
Septimus bowed, and would have left the unhappy Martha without further speech; but the housekeeper caught him by the arm, as she cried in hoarse accents: ‘At least you will promise never to mention to any human being the scheme I proposed for your benefit?’