'Where's Jim ?' says I.
'Don't ask,' says he.

'Where is he, Sandy ?' I screeches; and then, 'Don't say the word, Sandy, don't you say it.' But, Lor' bless ye, sir, it didn't much matter what he said nor what he didn't, for I knowed all, an' down I flops on the deck in a dead faint.

The mate, he took me home in a cab, and when I come to there was the supper lying, sir, and the beer, and the things a-shinin', and all so cosy, an' the child askin' where her father was, for I told her he'd bring her some things from Africa.

Then, to think of him a-lyin' dead in Bonny river, why, sir, it nigh broke my heart." "A sore affliction," the merchant said, shaking his grizzled head.
"A sad visitation.

But these things are sent to try us, Mrs.Hudson.
They are warnings to us not to fix our thoughts too much upon the dross of this world, but to have higher aims and more durable aspirations.
We are poor short-sighted creatures, the best of us, and often mistake evil for good.