He surveyed his position in every light, calmly and deliberately, and saw
there was no hope. The whole scheme of his existence was reduced to the
question of how much ready-money he could carry out of that house in his
pocket, and in what direction he should betake himself after leaving it.
His first care must be to ascertain whether the marriage described in the
duplicate certificate had really taken place; his next, to repossess
himself of the papers left with Mr. Kaye.
Before leaving the house he went to his study, where he examined his
banker's book. Yes, it was as they had told him at the bank. He was
overdrawn. Among the letters lying unopened on his writing-table he found
a letter from one of the officials of the Unitas, calling his attention,
politely and respectfully, to that oversight upon his part. He read the
letter, and crumpled it into his pocket with an angry gesture.
"I am just about as well off now as I was twelve years ago, before Tom
Halliday came to Fitzgeorge Street," he said to himself; "and I have the
advantage of being twelve years older."
Yes, this is what it all came to, after all. He had been travelling in a
circle. The discovery was humiliating. Mr. Sheldon began to think that
his line of life had not been a paying one.
He opened his iron safe, and forced the lock of the jewel-case in which
his wife had kept the few handsome ornaments that he had given her in the
early days of their marriage, as a reward for being good--that is to say,
for allowing her second husband to dispose of her first husband's
patrimony without let or hindrance.
Pages:
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489