If you do, I am afraid you have a bitter disappointment before
you."
Quincy immediately called on Mary Dana, and had a long talk with her
about the matter. He told her all his conversation with Harry Merry
and showed her the bill of exchange, and the signature of his
father's which he knew to be genuine. After examining them both Mary
said,
"In many ways, this looks like a very clever forgery. The characters
are all made the same as in the signature to the letter,--notice the
peculiar little twist to the S in the word Adams, but your father
wrote a very firm, strong hand, and the writing on the bill of
exchange is weaker and a little shaky. That is undoubtedly due partly
to the fact that the signature on the bill of exchange is written
with a very fine steel pen, while that in the letter was written with
a quill. But, what makes me doubt the genuineness of the signature is
this,--although the characters are practically the same on the two
pieces of paper, your father's name in the letter is the writing of
an educated man, that on the bill of exchange looks like the efforts
of a man unaccustomed to write, probably through ignorance, but
perhaps due to the fact that he has not held a pen for a long time."
"But, Mary," asked Quincy, "how are we going to find out about it,
how can we learn who did sign it?"
"There are the endorsements on the back.
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