Why had he not accepted Aylward's offer and sold that old
fetish to him for L17,000? There was no question of share-dealing there,
and if a very wealthy man chose to give a fancy price for a curiosity,
he could take it without doubt or shame. At least it would have sufficed
to save Yarleys, which after all was only mortgaged for L20,000. For the
life of him he could not tell. He had acted on impulse, a very curious
impulse, and there was an end of it perhaps; it might be because his
uncle had told him as a boy that the thing was unique, or perhaps
because old Jeekie, his negro servant, venerated it so much and swore
that it was "lucky." At any rate he had declined and there was an end.
But another and a graver matter remained. He had desired wealth to save
Yarleys, but he desired it still more for a different purpose. Above
everything on earth he loved Barbara, his distant cousin and the niece
of Mr. Champers-Haswell, who until an hour ago had been his partner.
Now she was a great heiress, and without fortune he could not marry her,
even if she would marry him, which remained in doubt. For one thing
her uncle and guardian Haswell, under her father's will, had absolute
discretion in this matter until she reached the age of twenty-five, and
for another he was too proud.
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