In the sudden excitement of that
discovery, she read the rest of the sentence eagerly, before she made
any second attempt to return to the lost place:
"If your nephew fails to comply with these conditions--that is to say,
if, being either a bachelor or a widower at the time of my decease, he
fails to marry in all respects as I have here instructed him to marry,
within six calendar months from that time--it is my desire that he shall
not receive--"
She had read to that point, to that last word and no further, when a
hand passed suddenly from behind her between the letter and her eye, and
gripped her fast by the wrist in an instant.
She turned with a shriek of terror, and found herself face to face with
old Mazey.
The veteran's eyes were bloodshot; his hand was heavy; his list slippers
were twisted crookedly on his feet; and his body swayed to and fro on
his widely parted legs. If he had tested his condition that night by
the unfailing criterion of the model ship, he must have inevitably
pronounced sentence on himself in the usual form: "Drunk again, Mazey;
drunk again."
"You young Jezebel!" said the old sailor, with a leer on one side of his
face, and a frown on the other.
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