"
"Don't tell me any more about yoursel," said Jem soothingly.
"What! you're tired already, are you? but I will tell you; as you've
asked for it, you shall hear it. I won't recall the agony of the
past for nothing. I will have the relief of telling it. Oh, how
happy I was!"--sinking her voice into a plaintive, childlike manner.
"It went like a shot through me when one day he came to me and told
me he was ordered to Ireland, and must leave me behind; at Bristol
we then were."
Jem muttered some words; she caught their meaning, and in a pleading
voice continued--
"Oh, don't abuse him; don't speak a word against him! You don't
know how I love him yet; yet, when I am sunk so low. You don't
guess how kind he was. He gave me fifty pounds before we parted,
and I knew he could ill spare it. Don't, Jem, please," as his
muttered indignation rose again. For her sake he ceased. "I might
have done better with the money; I see now. But I did not know the
value of it then. Formerly I had earned it easily enough at the
factory, and as I had no more sensible wants, I spent it on dress
and on eating.
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