My manuscript experiments at my friend's bedside,
include nothing, now, which he would have hesitated to communicate to
others, if he had recovered the use of his memory. In your case, I
have every reason to suppose that my notes contain something which he
actually wished to say to you."
"And yet, you hesitate?"
"And yet, I hesitate. Remember the circumstances under which I obtained
the information which I possess! Harmless as it is, I cannot prevail
upon myself to give it up to you, unless you first satisfy me that there
is a reason for doing so. He was so miserably ill, Mr. Blake! and he was
so helplessly dependent upon Me! Is it too much to ask, if I request you
only to hint to me what your interest is in the lost recollection--or
what you believe that lost recollection to be?"
To have answered him with the frankness which his language and his
manner both claimed from me, would have been to commit myself to openly
acknowledging that I was suspected of the theft of the Diamond. Strongly
as Ezra Jennings had intensified the first impulsive interest which
I had felt in him, he had not overcome my unconquerable reluctance to
disclose the degrading position in which I stood.
Pages:
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720