But by degrees I recovered my
senses, and told my darling and Mr. Craven it was not fit she should,
out of very generosity, give herself to me--a man utterly destitute of
fortune--a man who, though he loved her better than life, was only a
clerk at a clerk's salary.
"If I were a duke," I went on, breaking ground at last, "with a duke's
revenue and a duke's rank, I should only value what I had for her sake.
I would carry my money, and my birth, and my position to her, and ask
her to take all, if she would only take me with them; but, as matters
stand, Mr. Craven--"
"I owe everything worth having in life to you," she said, impetuously,
taking my hand in hers. "I should not like you at all if you were a
duke, and had a ducal revenue."
"I think you are too strait-laced, Patterson," agreed Mr. Craven. "She
does owe everything she has to your determination, remember."
"But I undertook to solve the mystery for fifty pounds," I remarked,
smiling in spite of myself.
"Which has never been paid," remarked my employer. "But," he went on,
"you young people come here and sit down, and let us talk the affair
over all together." And so he put us in chairs as if we had been
clients, while he took his professional seat, and, after a pause, began:
"My dear Helena, I think the young man has reason.
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