Some little profit Mr. Sheldon of Gray's Inn did derive from the Haygarth
estate; for at the request of Gustave Lenoble Messrs. Dashwood and Vernon
sent him a cheque for one thousand pounds, as the price of those early
investigations which had set the artful Captain upon the right track. He
wrote a ceremoniously grateful letter to Gustave Lenoble on receiving
this honorarium. It is always well to be grateful for benefits received
from a rich man; but in the depths of his heart he execrated the
fortunate inheritor of the Haygarthian thousands.
Mr. Hawkehurst was not quite so vehement in the expression of his
feelings as that lively Celt, Gustave; but deep in his heart there was a
sense of happiness no less pure and exalted.
Providence had given him more than he had ever dared to hope; not
John Haygarth's thousands; not a life of luxurious idleness, and
dinner-giving, and Derby days, and boxes on the grand tier, and
carriage-horses at five hundred guineas a pair; not a palace in
Belgravia, and a shooting-box in the Highlands, and a villa at Cowes;
not these things, in which he would once have perceived the _summum
bonum_; but a fair price for his labour, a dear young wife, a tranquil
home.
Nor had his researches among the dusty records of the departed Haygarths
been profitless in a pecuniary sense to himself. Gustave Lenoble insisted
that he should accept that honorarium of three thousand pounds which had
been promised by George Sheldon as the reward of his success.
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