“What will they, indeed!” repeated he, “Violet especially! She drove me to it!”
“Violet? Drove you to marry her?” I cried.—It sounded so strange!
“Oh, Cherry! what will you say? It makes me shudder to tell you!” he rapidly said; “Nothing but that Girl’s incorrigible Coquetry could have made me break with her as I did; and then Reproaches led to Taunts, and Taunts to Threatenings, till bad led to worse, and she twitted me with my Poverty, and I told her I could be a richer Man in twenty-four Hours than her Father, and look down upon them all, and she dared me to it, and said a better Man than me was waiting for her, and so—Temptation to be revenged on her came in my Way, and—I’ve married Mistress Glossop!”
“Oh, Mark!”
—“Nay, Cherry, don’t give way so,” said he, beginning to shed Tears himself when he saw me weeping bitterly,—“Love is not a Man’s whole Life, and what I’ve tasted of it hasn’t made me very happy. I’ve stepped into a famous Business, and I shall have a quiet Fireside, and a capital Table, and kind Looks if not pretty ones, and—a done Thing can’t be undone: so there’s an End on’t!”
Then, fancying he heard my Father’s Step, though ’twas only Master Blower’s, he hastily exclaimed, “You must tell my Uncle—Good-bye, Cherry!” and hurried out of the House.
When he was gone, I sat in a Kind of Stupor.... Married? and to such a Wife!—How could he?—how could she? ... and this increased my Amazement, for he had been beside himself with Anger and Jealousy, and hardly knew what he was doing,—but that she, cool, collected, and at her Time of Life, could have closed with his Proposals without the Delay of a single Day!—how disgusting!—Ah, she was afraid of losing him!
—Immersed in these sad Thoughts, with my Hands clasped on my Lap, I was unaware of my Father’s Return till he stood before me. I started.
“Has Mark returned?” cried he.
“He came back, and is again gone,” said I.