It is the same. Lucky fellow! I would I were in his place
now." And he fell straightway into a moody taking, looking down as if he
had forgotten me.
"Sir, do you say so?" I stammered foolishly, "when--when----"
"When you have run away from him? Not for that, little maid;" and he
broke again into a laugh that had mischief in it. "But because when we
last met he was in luck and I out of it, yet we guessed it not at the
time."
"I am glad he is doing well," I said proudly.
"Then should you be sorry for me that am in trouble," he answered. "For
I have no home now, nor am like to have, but must go beyond seas and
begin a new life as best I may."
"I am indeed sorry, for it is sad to be alone. If Mrs. Gaunt had not
been kind to me----"
[Sidenote: Interrupted]
"And to me," he interrupted, "we should never have met. She is a good
woman, your mistress Gaunt."
"Yet, I have heard that beyond seas there are many diversions," I
answered, to turn the talk from myself, seeing that he was minded to be
too familiar.
"For those that start with good company and pleasant companions. If I
had a pleasant companion, one that would smile upon me with bright eyes
when I was sad, and scold me with her pretty lips when I went
astray--for there is nothing like a pretty Puritan for keeping a
careless man straight."
"Oh, sir!" I cried, starting to my feet as he put his hand across the
deal table to mine; and then the door opened and Elizabeth Gaunt came
in.
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