So whomsoever he went to would levy
blackmail on him on threat of informing the police and having him
arrested. Therefore, the most feasible thing would be that he had
got about half of the value of the nugget, which would be about six
hundred pounds. Say that he did so, a whole year had elapsed, and
Madame Midas knew her husband well enough to know that six hundred
pounds would soon slip through his fingers, so at the present time
he must once more be penniless. If he was, why did he not come back
to her and demand more money now she was rich? Even had he gone to a
distant place, he would always have kept enough money to pay his way
back to Victoria, so that he could wring money out of her. It was
this unpleasant feeling of being watched that haunted her and made
her uneasy. The constant strain began to tell on her; she became ill
and haggard-looking, and her eyes were always glancing around in the
anxious manner common to hunted animals. She felt as though she were
advancing on a masked battery, and at any moment a shot might strike
her from the most unexpected quarter. She tried to laugh off the
feeling and blamed herself severely for the morbid state of mind
into which she was falling; but it was no use, for by day and night
the sense of impending misfortune hung over her like the sword of
Damocles, ready to fall at any moment. If her husband would only
appear, she would settle an income on him, on condition he ceased to
trouble her, but at present she was fighting in the dark with an
unknown enemy.
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