I hope you mean to contribute a handsome wreath to my obsequies?' 'Certainly! In the nature of things, it is likely that you will predecease me.' 'If I survive this adventure there can be no question of that. Your fate is writ clear: you will be murdered. I cannot conceive how it comes about that you were not murdered long since!' 'How odd! Charles himself once said that to me, or something like it!' 'There is nothing odd in it: any sensible man must say it!