. You
talk to me about starving. I tell you that I should have no objection
to be starved, and so be put an end to in that way. It's not so bad
as some other ways when it comes gradually. You and I, Jane, have not
played our cards very well. We have staked all that we had, and we've
been beaten. It's no good whimpering after what's lost. We'd better
go somewhere else and begin a new game."

"Go where?" said she.

"Ah!--that's just what I can't tell you."

"George," she said, "I'll go anywhere with you. If what you say is
true,--if you're not going to be married, and will let me come to
you, I will work for you like a slave. I will indeed. I know I'm
poorly looking now--"

"My girl, where I'm going, I shall not want any slave; and as for
your looks--when you go there too,--they'll be of no matter, as far
as I am able to judge."

"But, George, where are you going?"

"Wherever people do go when their brains are knocked out of them; or,
rather, when they have knocked out their own brains,--if that makes
any difference."

"George,"--she came up to him now, and took hold of him by the front
of his coat, and for the moment he allowed her to do so,--"George,
you frighten me. Do not do that. Say that you will not do that!"

"But I am just saying that I shall."

"Are you not afraid of God's anger? You and I have been very wicked."

"I have, my poor girl. I don't know much about your wickedness. I've
been like Topsy;--indeed I am a kind of second Topsy myself. But
what's the good of whimpering when it's over?"

"It isn't over; it isn't over,--at any rate for you."

"I wish I knew how I could begin again. But all this is nonsense,
Jane, and you must go."

"You must tell me, first, that you are not going to--kill yourself."

"I don't suppose I shall do it to-night,--or, perhaps, not to-morrow.
Very probably I may allow myself a week, so that your staying here
can do no good. I merely wanted to make you understand that you are
not the only person who has come to grief."

"And you are not going to be married?"

"No; I'm not going to be married, certainly."

"And I must go now?"

"Yes; I think you'd better go now." Then she rose and went, and he
let her leave the room without giving her a shilling! His bantering
tone, in speaking of his own position, had been successful. It had
caused her to take herself off quietly. She knew enough of his usual
manner to be aware that his threats of self destruction were probab