So,
consoling her paramour with this questionable bit of comfort, she
tore herself away, saying coolly that he would soon forget and marry
some one in his own station in life. But, though she nerved herself
to speak in this strain before him, when alone she broke down
entirely, and sobbed till her heart nearly broke, for the poor girl
loved him dearly, and, poor though he was, would have married him
and worked for him, if necessary. She saw, however, that his
prospects would be utterly blasted were he to disclose his position
to his father; and she unselfishly took on herself _the whole_ of
the punishment for a sin of which she was scarcely guilty, or, at
any rate, less highly culpable than he.
Jack would fain have put a pistol ball through his head, and
doubtless would have done so had the pistol been handy; but his
pistols, like everything else he possessed, were out of order, and
were at the moment in Mr. Costen's hands, where they lay in a
disintegrated condition till the young gentleman's blood had got
some degrees cooler. Still, he could not help thinking how his folly
and thoughtlessness had ruined the hopes of a poor innocent girl,
and he longed for some opportunity for going abroad, or
participating in some excitement to enable him to muse less moodily
on the past.
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