Still if it be admitted that this marriage
did not fulfil all formalities, then so much the better for Blanche
and myself. If she be your lawful wife and not mine, you, I learn, have
signed a writing in her favour under which she will inherit your great
wealth. That indenture I think you can find no opportunity to dispute,
and if you do I have a promise that the property of a certain traitor
shall pass to me, the revealer of his treachery. Let it console you in
your last moments, Master merchant, to remember that the lady whom you
have honoured with your fancy will pass her days in wealth and comfort
in the company of him whom she has honoured with her love."
"Draw!" I said briefly as I unsheathed my sword.
"Why should I fight with a base, trading usurer?" he asked, still
mocking me, though I thought that there was doubt in his voice.
"Answer your own question, thief. Fight if you will, or die without
fighting if you will not. For know that until I am dead you do not leave
this room living."
"Until I dead too, O Lord," broke in Kari in his gentle voice, bowing in
his courteous foreign fashion.
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