"I suppose I may as well give it up."
"What can I say?"
"You have been fair enough, Mr. Masters. And so has she. And so has
everybody. I shall just get away as quick as I can, and go and hang
myself. I feel above bothering her any more. When she sat down to
write a letter like that she must have been in earnest"
"She certainly was in earnest, Larry."
"What's the use of going on after that? Only it is so hard for a
fellow to feel that everything is gone. It is just as though the
house was burnt down, or I was to wake in the morning and find that
the land didn't belong to me."
"Not so bad as that, Larry."
"Not so bad, Mr. Masters! Then you don't know what it is I'm
feeling. I'd let his lordship or Squire Morton have it all, and go
in upon it as a tenant at 30s. an acre, so that I could take her
along with me. I would, and sell the horses and set to and work in
my shirt-sleeves. A man could stand that. Nobody wouldn't laugh at
me then. But there's an emptiness now here that makes me sick all
through, as though I hadn't got stomach left for anything." Then
poor Larry put his hand upon his heart and hid his face upon the
churchyard wall. The attorney made some attempt to say a kind word
to him, and then, leaving him there, slowly made his way back to
his office.
We already know what first step Larry took with the intention of
running away from his cares.
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