I will.'
'You must know that when I left here, a boy,' said
Edward, 'I was in love, and my love was returned.
She was a very young girl, who perhaps (you may
tell me) didn't know her own mind. But I knew
mine, and I had a passion for her.'
'You had!' exclaimed the Carrier. 'You!'
'Indeed I had,' returned the other. 'And she re-
turned it. I have ever since believed she did, and
now I am sure she did.'
'Heaven help me!' said the Carrier. 'This is worse
than all.'
'Constant to her,' said Edward, 'and returning, full
of hope, after many hardships and perils, to redeem
my part of our old contract, I heard, twenty miles
away, that she was false to me; that she had forgotten
me; and had bestowed herself upon another and a
richer man. I had no mind to reproach her; but I
wished to see her, and to prove beyond dispute tbat
this was true. I hoped she might have been forced
into it, against her own desire and recollection. It
would be small comfort, but it would be some, I
thought, and on I came. That I might have the
truth, the real truth; observing freely for myself, and
judging for myself, without obstruction on the one
hand, or presenting my own influence (if I had any)
before her, on the other; I dressed myself unlike my-
self -- you know how; and waited on the road -- you
know where.
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