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A Terrible Secret by May Agnes Fleming
page 41 of 573 (07%)
come here again and defame my wife, and I'll transport you though you
were my brother. Now go, and never come back."

He walked to the door and flung it wide. Juan Catheron stood and
looked at him, his admirable good-humor unruffled, something like
genuine admiration in his face.

"By Jupiter!" he exclaimed, "who'd have thought it! Such a milk-sop as
he used to be! Well, baronet, I don't deny you got the upper hand of
me in that unpleasant little affair of the forgery, and Portland
Island with a chain on my leg and hard labor for twenty years I don't
particularly crave. Of course, if Ethel won't come, she won't, but I
say again it's deuced shabby treatment. Because, baronet, that sort of
thing _is_ a marriage in Scotland, say what you like. I suppose it's
natural she should prefer the owner of Catheron Royals and twenty
thousand per annum, to a poor devil of a sailor like me; but all the
same it's hard lines. Good-by, Inez--be sisterly, can't you, and come
and see a fellow. I'm stopping at the 'Ring o' Bells,' in Chesholm.
Good-by, Ethel. 'Thou hast learned to love another, thou hast broken
every vow,' but you might shake hands for the sake of old times. You
won't--well, then, good-by without. The next time I marry I'll make
sure of my wife."

He swaggered out of the room, giving Sir Victor a friendly and
forgiving nod, flung his wide awake on his black curls, clattered down
the stairs and out of the house.

"By-by, William," he said to the butler. "I'm off again, you see. Most
inhospitable lot _I_ ever saw--never so much as offered me a glass
of wine. Good-night, my daisy. Oh river! as they say in French. Oh
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