"Well, but, Izz, we'll part friends, anyhow? You don't know what
I've had to bear!"
She was a really generous girl, and allowed no further bitterness to
mar their adieux.
"I forgive 'ee, sir!" she said.
"Now, Izz," he said, while she stood beside him there, forcing
himself to the mentor's part he was far from feeling; "I want you to
tell Marian when you see her that she is to be a good woman, and not
to give way to folly. Promise that, and tell Retty that there are
more worthy men than I in the world, that for my sake she is to act
wisely and well--remember the words--wisely and well--for my sake.
I send this message to them as a dying man to the dying; for I shall
never see them again. And you, Izzy, you have saved me by your
honest words about my wife from an incredible impulse towards folly
and treachery. Women may be bad, but they are not so bad as men in
these things! On that one account I can never forget you. Be always
the good and sincere girl you have hitherto been; and think of me as
a worthless lover, but a faithful friend. Promise."
She gave the promise.
"Heaven bless and keep you, sir. Goodbye!"
He drove on; but no sooner had Izz turned into the lane, and Clare
was out of sight, than she flung herself down on the bank in a fit of
racking anguish; and it was with a strained unnatural face that she
entered her mother's cottage late that night.
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