"
"Ah, papa, she pleaded for _him_ as I cannot plead, and yet I love him.
It was true eloquence. Oh, how she made me shudder! Only think: he had
a fit, and lost his reason, and all for me. What shall I do? What shall
I do?"
This brought on a fit of weeping.
Her father pitied her, and gave her a crumb of sympathy: said he was
sorry for Sir Charles.
"But," said he, recovering his resolution, "it cannot be helped. He
must expiate his vices, like other men. Do, pray, pluck up a little
spirit and sense. Now try and keep to the point. This woman came from
him; and you say you heard her language, and admire it. Quote me some
of it."
"She said he fell down as black as his hat, and his eyes rolled, and
his poor teeth gnashed, and--oh, my darling! my darling! oh! oh! oh!"
"There--there--I mean about other things."
Bella complied, but with a running accompaniment of the sweetest little
sobs.
"She said I must be very green, to swallow an anonymous letter like
spring water. Oh! oh!"
"Green? There was a word!"
"Oh! oh! But it is the right word. You can't mend it. Try, and you will
see you can't. Of course I was green. Oh! And she said every gentleman
who can afford to keep a saddle-horse has a female friend, till his
banns are called in church.
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