Hardly a week had passed since I had heard (to my surprise and distress)
of Miss Verinder's proposed marriage. I had the sincerest admiration
and affection for her; and I had been inexpressibly grieved when I heard
that she was about to throw herself away on Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. And
now, here was the man--whom I had always believed to be a smooth-tongued
impostor--justifying the very worst that I had thought of him, and
plainly revealing the mercenary object of the marriage, on his side! And
what of that?--you may reply--the thing is done every day. Granted, my
dear sir. But would you think of it quite as lightly as you do, if the
thing was done (let us say) with your own sister?
The first consideration which now naturally occurred to me was this.
Would Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite hold to his engagement, after what his
lawyer had discovered for him?
It depended entirely on his pecuniary position, of which I knew nothing.
If that position was not a desperate one, it would be well worth his
while to marry Miss Verinder for her income alone. If, on the other
hand, he stood in urgent need of realising a large sum by a given
time, then Lady Verinder's Will would exactly meet the case, and would
preserve her daughter from falling into a scoundrel's hands.
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