The lawyer drew a bulky paper from his pocket.
“Here is the schedule,” he said, and then glancing at the total of many pages of figures, he answered, “They are close on ten thousand pounds....”
“‘Tis a good round sum,” said the poet, “but in two years I have earned it, every penny, and more besides.”
“It sounds like a dream,” said the poet, “but it is true. Think what fun one might have with ten thousand pounds--if one were not going to die....”
“Or pay one’s debts at last,” laughed the lawyer.
“That reminds me that I have a fancy for the manner of paying them, in which I hope you will humour me. I wish to pay each creditor in person, and I wish to pay him in solid gold. I would, therefore, ask you to send out a notice inviting them here at noon to-day week; that is, Wednesday week--I shall not die till Friday.”
Though he was quite serious, the poet could not help laughing at this final touch, and the lawyer joined in. “You humbug!” he exclaimed; but, for all that, the poet was able to convince him of his seriousness after a while.
“I would have them pass before me one by one, as I lie propped up on pillows on my death-bed, and I shall expect each one first to bend down and kiss my hand. Then a clerk will call out his name in a loud voice, and the amount of the debt, and another clerk shall weigh out to him the amount in gold.... I intend it to be a kind of triumphal lying in state. But we can discuss the exact details later. I feel a little tired. The shadows are already weighing down my eyelids....” and the poet laughed again his sad sinister laugh; though, indeed, it was true enough, as the lawyer, looking at him, could not fail to note.
“Good-night, old friend,” said the poet; “come and see me again tomorrow;” and, when the lawyer had gone, he once more stretched himself out in the bed, luxuriously murmuring the lines he had murmured nightly for so many years:
“If rest be sweet at close of day For tired hands and tired feet, How good at last to rest for aye-- If rest be sweet.”
The lying in state, as the poet grimly called it, was conducted exactly as he had conceived it. At first the lawyer had protested that to expect your honest English tradesman to bow the knee and kiss the hand of one of his debtors was out of the question.