After telling us he
would wait and make his will when he was well again, he looked round at
me, and said some kind and feeling words which my memory will treasure
to my dying day. Have you forgotten those words, Mr. Noel?"
"Yes," said Mr. Noel, without hesitation.
"In my present situation, sir," retorted Mrs. Lecount, "delicacy forbids
me to improve your memory."
She looked at her watch, and relapsed into silence. He clinched his
hands, and writhed from side to side of his chair in an agony of
indecision. Mrs. Lecount passively refused to take the slightest notice
of him.
"What should you say--?" he began, and suddenly stopped again.
"Yes, sir?"
"What should you say to--a thousand pounds?"
Mrs. Lecount rose from her chair, and looked him full in the face, with
the majestic indignation of an outraged woman.
"After the service I have rendered you to-day, Mr. Noel," she said, "I
have at least earned a claim on your respect, if I have earned nothing
more. I wish you good-morning."
"Two thousand!" cried Noel Vanstone, with the courage of despair.
Mrs. Lecount folded up her papers and hung her traveling-bag over her
arm in contemptuous silence.
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