To hear his last will read will be almost like hearing from him." "There is beside the will a letter from your father, addressed to you, and left in the charge of Kage, to be delivered with the reading of the will, in the case of his, the writer's, sudden death," gravely added the duke.
"A letter from my dear father to me?
A letter from the grave! No, rather a letter from Heaven! Telegraph Mr.Kage to bring down the papers at once, dear John," said Salome, eagerly, as a warm flush arose on her pale, transparent cheek.
"I will do so at once, love; for to my mind, that letter is of equal importance with the will--though no lawyer would think so," said the duke.
"You know its purport then ?" "No, dearest, not certainly, but I surmise it, from some conversations that I held with the late Sir Lemuel Levison." As he spoke the door opened and Lady Belgrade entered the room, saying softly, as she would have spoken beside the cradle of a sick baby: "I am sorry to disturb your grace; but the fifteen minutes permitted by the doctor have passed, and Salome must not sit up longer." "I am going now, dear madam," said the duke, rising.
He took Salome's hand, held it for a moment in his, while he gazed into her eyes, then pressed it to his lips, and so took his morning's leave of her.
The same forenoon he rode over to the Lone Station, and dispatched a telegram to the family solicitor, Kage..