After
all, he had a year at his disposal, in which to raise the three thousand
pounds--and a year is a long time.
Mr. Luker drew out the necessary documents on the spot. When they were
signed, he gave Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite two cheques. One, dated June 23rd,
for three hundred pounds. Another, dated a week on, for the remaining
balance seventeen hundred pounds.
How the Moonstone was trusted to the keeping of Mr Luker's bankers, and
how the Indians treated Mr. Luker and Mr. Godfrey (after that had been
done) you know already.
The next event in your cousin's life refers again to Miss Verinder. He
proposed marriage to her for the second time--and (after having being
accepted) he consented, at her request, to consider the marriage as
broken off. One of his reasons for making this concession has been
penetrated by Mr. Bruff. Miss Verinder had only a life interest in her
mother's property--and there was no raising the twenty thousand pounds
on THAT.
But you will say, he might have saved the three thousand pounds, to
redeem the pledged Diamond, if he had married. He might have done so
certainly--supposing neither his wife, nor her guardians and trustees,
objected to his anticipating more than half of the income at his
disposal, for some unknown purpose, in the first year of his marriage.
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