Page 261 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

Why shouldn’t I say it? You are disagreeable, sir. I won’t play
with you any more,’ and she went off along the sand.
‘Poor little child,’ said Rufus Dawes. ‘You speak too
harshly to her.’
Frere—now that the boat was made—had regained his
self-confidence. Civilization seemed now brought suffi-
ciently close to him to warrant his assuming the position
of authority to which his social position entitled him. ‘One
would think that a boat had never been built before to hear
her talk,’ he said. ‘If this washing-basket had been one of
my old uncle’s three-deckers, she couldn’t have said much
more. By the Lord!’ he added, with a coarse laugh, ‘I ought
to have a natural talent for ship-building; for if the old
villain hadn’t died when he did, I should have been a ship-
builder myself.’
Rufus Dawes turned his back at the word ‘died’, and bus-
ied himself with the fastenings of the hides. Could the other
have seen his face, he would have been struck by its sudden
pallor.
‘Ah!’ continued Frere, half to himself, and half to his
companion, ‘that’s a sum of money to lose, isn’t it?’
‘What do you mean?’ asked the convict, without turning
his face.
‘Mean! Why, my good fellow, I should have been left a
quarter of a million of money, but the old hunks who was
going to give it to me died before he could alter his will, and
every shilling went to a scapegrace son, who hadn’t been
near the old man for years. That’s the way of the world, isn’t
it?’

0 For the Term of His Natural Life