Then she
blessed him, and bade him good-night.
"Stay a minute," said he, as she was on the point of departure. "I
may want to speak to you again. I mun know where to find you--where
do you live?"
She laughed strangely. "And do you think one sunk so low as I am
has a home? Decent, good people have homes. We have none. No; if
you want me, come at night and look at the corners of the streets
about here. The colder, the bleaker, the more stormy the night, the
more certain you will be to find me. For then," she added, with a
plaintive fall in her voice, "it is so cold sleeping in entries, and
on door-steps, and I want a dram more than ever."
Again she rapidly turned off, and Jem also went on his way. But
before he reached the end of the street, even in the midst of the
jealous anguish that filled his heart, his conscience smote him. He
had not done enough to save her. One more effort, and she might
have come. Nay, twenty efforts would have been well rewarded by her
yielding. He turned back, but she was gone. In the tumult of his
other feelings, his self-reproach was deadened for the time.
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