Читать книгу Wild Nat, the Trooper; or, The Cedar Swamp Brigade онлайн

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He approached the general in a careless manner. Shaking hands with the superior officer, he took a seat.

“I received your note,” remarked Preston, after a silence of some minutes, which he spent in curiously eyeing the papers on the table. “I could not quite understand the drift of it, but here I am to receive the explanation, which you promised when we should meet. I send out my application for exchange by the next ship, and have a fair prospect of leaving this miserable country; so don’t send me where I will be killed off before I get a chance to enjoy this fortune of mine.”

“Perhaps it may be as well to stay here. You never could live in London without money, and your pockets are not particularly replete with that article.”

“I know they haven’t been; but this little fortune I was speaking about is sufficient to keep me floating until I can carry off a rich wife. Three thousand a year is not such an insignificant sum.”

“It is concerning that ‘small fortune’ that I wish to speak. If you will take the trouble to recall the words of your letter from Thompson & Smith, you will remember that they stated the fact in nearly these words: ‘Although, at the present time we can scarce speak with absolute certainty, yet, we have the pleasure of announcing, in all probability you are heir to an estate of three thousand a year. We would not advise you to announce this as a fact, until we discover whether there be any nearer relatives to the deceased than yourself. At present, we know of none.’ Are not these the words?”