I leave love and
such-like trash to those like yourself and Hope, who have nothing
else to think about."
"But a marriage without love--"
"Pooh! pooh! pooh! Don't argue with me, Random. Love is all
moonshine. I did not love my first wife--Lucy's mother--and
yet we were very happy. Had I made Mrs. Jasher my second, we
should have got on excellently, provided the money was
forthcoming for my Egyptian expedition. What am I to do now, I
ask you, Random? Even the thousand pounds you pay for the mummy
goes back to that infernal Hope because of Lucy's silly ideas. I
have nothing--absolutely nothing, and that tomb is amongst those
Ethiopian hills, I swear, waiting to be opened. Oh, what a
chance I have missed!--what a chance! But I shall see Mrs.
Jasher myself. She knows about this murder."
"She declares that she does not."
"Don't tell me! don't tell me!" vociferated the Professor. "She
would not have written that letter had she known nothing."
"That was bluff. I explained all that."
"Bluff be hanged!" cried Braddock, only he used a more vigorous
word. "I do not believe that she would have dared to act on such
a slight foundation. I shall see her myself this very afternoon
and force her to confess.
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