. When they were
signed, he gave Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite two cheques. One, dated June 23rd,
for three hundred pounds. Another, dated a week on, for the remaining
balance seventeen hundred pounds.
How the Moonstone was trusted to the keeping of Mr Luker's bankers, and
how the Indians treated Mr. Luker and Mr. Godfrey (after that had been
done) you know already.
The next event in your cousin's life refers again to Miss Verinder. He
proposed marriage to her for the second time--and (after having being
accepted) he consented, at her request, to consider the marriage as
broken off. One of his reasons for making this concession has been
penetrated by Mr. Bruff. Miss Verinder had only a life interest in her
mother's property--and there was no raising the twenty thousand pounds
on THAT.
But you will say, he might have saved the three thousand pounds, to
redeem the pledged Diamond, if he had married. He might have done so
certainly--supposing neither his wife, nor her guardians and trustees,
objected to his anticipating more than half of the income at his
disposal, for some unknown purpose, in the first year of his marriage.
But even if he got over this obstacle, there was another waiting for him
in the background. The lady at the Villa, had heard of his contemplated
marriage. A superb woman, Mr. Blake, of the sort that are not to be
triffled with--the sort with the light complexion and the Roman nose.
She felt the utmost contempt for Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. It would be
silent contempt, if he made a handsome provision for her. Otherwise,
it would be contempt with a tongue to it. Miss Verinder's life interest
allowed him no more hope of raising the "provision" than of raising the
twenty thousand pounds. He couldn't marry--he really couldn't marry,
under all the circumstances.
How he tried his luck again with another lady, and how THAT marriage
also broke down on the question of money, you know already. You
also know of the legacy of five thousand pounds, left to him shortly
afterwards, by one of those many admirers among the soft sex whose good
graces this fascinating man had contrived to win. That legacy (as the
event has proved) led him to his death.
I have ascertained that when he went abroad, on getting his five
thousand pounds, he went to Amsterdam. There he made all the necessary
arrangements for having the Diamond cut into separate stones. He came
back (in disguise), and redeemed the Moonstone, on the appointed day
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