"Claret, George?" said the admiral, pushing the bottle across the table.
"You look out of spirits."
"I am a little anxious, sir," replied George, leaving his glass empty,
and looking straight into the fire.
"I am glad to hear it," rejoined the admiral. "I am more than a
little anxious myself, I can tell you. Here we are at the last days of
March--and nothing done! Your time comes to an end on the third of May;
and there you sit, as if you had years still before you, to turn round
in."
George smiled, and resignedly helped himself to some wine.
"Am I really to understand, sir," he asked, "that you are serious in
what you said to me last November? Are you actually resolved to bind me
to that incomprehensible condition?"
"I don't call it incomprehensible," said the admiral, irritably.
"Don't you, sir? I am to inherit your estate, unconditionally--as you
have generously settled it from the first. But I am not to touch a
farthing of the fortune poor Noel left you unless I am married within
a certain time. The house and lands are to be mine (thanks to your
kindness) under any circumstances. But the money with which I might
improve them both is to be arbitrarily taken away from me, if I am not a
married man on the third of May.
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