He had now nothing but a life of labour before him, without a gleam of hope to cheer his way, but that he should think of me always, and of the happy hours we had passed together.

I felt so sorry for him that I could really say nothing, either to cheer or discourage him.

He simply asked me to allow him to remain my friend, and to forgive his presumption; and so we shook hands and parted.

He did not join the family that evening, and the next day I left the Merryweathers.
'I do not know how it was, but when I returned home, I thought more of this young man than of any one else.

Although my sister and myself were surrounded by men of a very different, and I may say, superior class, still he haunted me very much, for a time at least.
'Then came my sister's marriage, which proved, as you know, unfortunate in a pecuniary point of view, and her and her husband's emigration to Australia in search of fortune.