The million pound banknote

'Try me - oh, do, I beg of you! Only just try me for thirty or forty years, and if -

'Oh, well, all right; it's but a little thing to ask, take her along.'

Happy, we two? There are not words enough in the unabridged to describe it. And when London got the whole history, a day or two later, of my month's adventures with that bank-note, and how they ended, did London talk, and have a good time? Yes.

My Portia's papa took that friendly and hospitable bill back to the Bank of England and cashed it; then the Bank cancelled it and made him a present of it, and gave it to us at our wedding, and it has always hung in its frame in the sacredest part of our home ever since. For it gave me my Portia. But for it I could not have remained in London, would not have appeared at the ambassador's, never should have met her. And so I always say, 'Yes, it's a million-pounder, as you see; but it never made but one purchase in its life, and then got the article for only about a tenth part of its value.'

The End

Vocabulary:

Unabridged: The complete Oxford dictionary
Hospitable: Friendly to guests
Cancel [a cheque]: Made it of no value