Why,
never was anyone half so fortunate as I am."
"Yes," said I, "you have been inoculated for marriage, and have
recovered."
"And yet," he said, "I was very fond of her till she took to drinking."
"Perhaps; but is it not Tennyson who has said: ''Tis better to have loved
and lost, than never to have lost at all'?"
"You are an inveterate bachelor," was the rejoinder.
Then we had a long talk with John, to whom I gave a 5 pound note upon the
spot. He said, "Ellen had used to drink at Battersby; the cook had
taught her; he had known it, but was so fond of her, that he had chanced
it and married her to save her from the streets and in the hope of being
able to keep her straight. She had done with him just as she had done
with Ernest--made him an excellent wife as long as she kept sober, but a
very bad one afterwards."
"There isn't," said John, "a sweeter-tempered, handier, prettier girl
than she was in all England, nor one as knows better what a man likes,
and how to make him happy, if you can keep her from drink; but you can't
keep her; she's that artful she'll get it under your very eyes, without
you knowing it. If she can't get any more of your things to pawn or
sell, she'll steal her neighbours'.
Pages:
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583