Nothing fairer can be imagined,--unless, indeed, I
choose to stand out for the whole property."
"But what does your brother say?"
He could not use his friend even as a messenger without telling him
something of the truth. "When I think of it, of this injustice, I can
hardly hold myself. He proposes to give me twenty-five thousand pounds."
"Twenty-five thousand pounds!--for everything?"
"Everything; yes. What the devil do you suppose I mean? Now just listen
to me." Then he told his tale as he thought that it ought to be told. He
recapitulated all the money he had spent on his brother's behalf, and
all that he chose to say that he had spent. He painted in glowing colors
the position in which he would have been put by the Nice marriage. He
was both angry and pathetic about the creditors. And he tore his hair
almost with vexation at the treatment to which he was subjected.
"I think I'd take the twenty-five thousand pounds," said Jones.
"Never! I'd rather starve first!"
"That's about what you'll have to do if all that you tell me is true."
There was again that tone of disappearing subjection. "I'll be shot if I
wouldn't take the money." Then there was a pause. "Couldn't you do that
and go to law with him afterward? That was what your father would have
done.
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