I had vainly expected a letter from my mother for two days,—and she usually wrote every day,—a circumstance which had depressed my spirits in a very unusual manner; and I was consequently little prepared to bear with fortitude the abrupt entrance of my husband in a state of great agitation: but pale and trembling I awaited the painful communication which I saw he was about to make.
"Helen!" cried he, "if you will not or cannot assist me, I am likely to be arrested every moment."
"Arrested! What for?" cried I, relieved beyond measure at hearing it was a distress which money could remove.
"Aye, Helen, dearest creature! There is the pang—for a debt so weakly contracted!"
"Oh! a gaming debt to Lord Charles, I suppose?"
"No, no, would it were!—though I own that way also I have been very culpable."
"Keep me no longer in suspense, I conjure you."
"Why you know what a rash marriage that silly girl Charlotte Jermyn made."
"Go on."
"Well—her husband was forced to sell his commission to pay his debts: but that was not sufficient; and to save him from a jail, I had the folly to be bound for him in no less a sum than several hundreds."