But there is another time which those who
wrote this Litany thought no less perilous, and bade us pray to be
delivered in all time of our wealth. So I pray that if, after all, this
wealth comes to your hand you may be led to use it well; for though I do
not hold with foolish tales, or think a curse hangs on riches themselves,
yet if riches have been set apart for a good purpose, even by evil men,
as Colonel John Mohune set apart this treasure, it cannot be but that we
shall do grievous wrong in putting them to other use. So fare you well,
and remember that there are other treasures besides this, and that a good
woman's love is worth far more than all the gold and jewels of the
world--as I once knew.' And with that he left me.
I guessed that he had spoken with Grace that day, and as I lay dozing in
front of the fire, alone in this old room I knew so well, alone with that
silent friend who had died to save me, I mourned him none the less, but
yet sorrowed not as one without hope.
* * * * *
What need to tell this tale at any more length, since you may know, by my
telling it, that all went well? for what man would sit down to write a
history that ended in his own discomfiture? All that great wealth came to
my hands, and if I do not say how great it was, 'tis that I may not wake
envy, for it was far more than ever I could have thought.
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