After you are dead, which I dare say will be before so very long," and he surveyed the huge, puffy-fleshed baronet with a critical eye, "then--if she cares to wait for me--I will marry her, hoping that in the meanwhile you may lose your money or dispose of it as you like." Sir John stared, still mopping his face, but finding no words.

He feared death very much and this prophecy of it, spoken with such a ring of truth, as though the speaker knew, frightened him.

At that moment in his heart he cursed the Reverend Mr.Knight and his tale-bearing, and wished most earnestly that he had never been led into interference with this matter.

After all Godfrey was a fine young man whom his daughter cared for, and might do well in life, and he had struck him first after offering him intentional and pre-arranged insult.

Such were the thoughts that flashed through his somewhat muddled brain.