"
Elma pointed to the paper, and made a sign that I was to read on. This I
did, and the statement ran as follows:
"The real reason why the Baron spared my life was because, if I died, my
fortune would pass to a distant cousin living at Durham. Yet his manner
towards me was now most polite and pleasant--a change that I felt boded
no good. He intended to obtain my money by marrying me to his son
Michael, whose evil reputation as a gambler was well known in
Petersburg. We traveled back to Finland in the autumn, and in the winter
he took me to stay with his sister in Nice. Yet almost daily he referred
to that tragedy at Naples, and threatened me with death if ever I
uttered a single word, or even admitted that I had ever seen the man who
was his rival and his victim."
"Last June," commenced another paragraph, "we were in Helsingfors, when
one day the Baron called me suddenly and told me to prepare for a
journey. We were to cross to Stockholm and thence to Hull, where the
_Iris_ was awaiting us, for Mr.
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