Читать книгу On the Brink of a Chasm: A record of plot and passion онлайн

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“It is strange to think that you are really the next heir,” said Barbara.

“It is a fact all the same, Barbara. If Piers were not in the world, dear little chap, I should be the baronet, and the property would be mine. Well, don’t let us say anything more about it. I suppose I must consent to our not being engaged for the present, but you must make me a promise.”

“What is that?”

“Tell me, here and now, that you will never marry anybody else.”

“I promise never to marry any man in this wide world but you, Richard Pelham,” said the girl slowly and solemnly.

Tarbot peered through the glass of the conservatory. He could just see the faces of the lovers. Barbara’s was all aflame with emotion. Dick was holding both her hands in a fervent clasp. With bowed head the surgeon moved away. He had made up his mind.

Hailing a hansom, he drove straight to the house of the patient whose dying bed he had promised to attend. It was now close on twelve o’clock—the man had breathed his last a quarter of an hour ago. Tarbot went into the house, made ample apologies to the widow, sympathized with her as she stood before him in her grief, and then took his leave.