t girl for this
strange, this entirely unexpected visit.'

"I won't tell you what took place between me and Jemima, to whom I was
introduced as she sat in the darkened room, poor sufferer! nor describe
to you with what a thrill of joy I seized (after groping about for it)
her poor emaciated hand. She did not withdraw it; I came out of that
room an engaged man, sir; and NOW I was enabled to show her that I had
always loved her sincerely, for there was my will, made three years
back, in her favour: that night she refused me, as I told ye. I would
have shot myself, but they'd have brought me in non compos; and my
brother Mick would have contested the will, and so I determined to live,
in order that she might benefit by my dying. I had but a thousand pounds
then: since that my father has left me two more. I willed every shilling
to her, as you may fancy, and settled it upon her when we married, as we
did soon after. It was not for some time that I was allowed to see
the poor girl's face, or, indeed, was aware of the horrid loss she had
sustained. Fancy my agony, my dear fellow, when I saw that beautiful
wreck!"

There was something not a little affecting to think, in the conduct of
this brave fellow, that he never once, as he told his story, seemed to
allude to the possibility of his declining to marry a woman who was not
the same as the woman he loved; but that he was quite as faithful to
her now, as he had been when captivated by the poor tawdry charms of the
silly Miss of Leamington. It was hard that such a noble heart as this
should be flung away upon yonder foul mass of greedy vanity. Was it
hard, or not, that he should remain deceived in his obstinate humility,
and continue to admire the selfish silly being whom he had chosen to
worship?

"I should have been appointed surgeon of the regiment," continued
Dennis, "soon after, when it was ordered abroad to Jamaica, where it now
is. But my wife would not hear of going, and said she would break her
heart if she left her mother. So I retired on half-pay, and took this
cottage; and in case any practice should fall in my way--why, there is
my name on the brass plate, and I'm ready for anything that comes. But
the only case that ever DID come was one day when I was driving my wife
in the chaise; and another, one night, of a beggar with a broken head.
My wife makes me a present of a baby every year, and we've no debts; and
between you and me and the post, as long as my mothe