But would it be wise? On your
own account would it be wise?"
"I cannot say that anything done for me would be wise,--unless you could
cut my throat."
"And yet there is no one whose future life might be easier. Your father,
the circumstances of whose life are the most singular I ever knew--"
"I shall never believe all this about my mother."
"Never mind that now. We will pass that by for the present. He has
disinherited you."
"That will be a question some day for the lawyers--should I live."
"But circumstances have so gone with him that he is enabled to leave you
another fortune. He is very angry with your brother, in which anger I
sympathize. He will strip Tretton as bare as the palm of my hand for
your sake. You have always been his favorite, and so, in spite of all
things, you are still. They tell me he cannot last for six months
longer."
"Heaven knows I do not wish him to die."
"But he thinks that your brother does. He feels that Augustus begrudges
him a few months' longer life, and he is angry. If he could again make
you his heir, now that the debts are all paid, he would do so." Here the
captain shook his head. "But as it is, he will leave you enough for all
the needs of even a luxurious life.
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