‘No;—I’d consent to that on condition that the money was paid down, and the income insured to me,—say £7,000 or £8,000 a year. I wouldn’t do it for less, mother; it wouldn’t be worth while.’ ‘But you have nothing left of your own.’ ‘I’ve got a throat that I can cut, and brains that I can blow out,’ said the son, using an argument which he conceived might be efficacious with his mother; though, had she known him, she might have been sure that no man lived less likely to cut his own throat or blow out his own brains.
