“Oh! I dare say. No doubt.”
“But since those days I’ve had a rough time of it, and had fallen into evil ways. At one time I associated with the upper classes—not quite as a companion, I don’t mean that, but I was in the secrets of a few of the big guns—but, zounds! that is all past now. I’ve come down right on my haunches, and the chances are I shall never get up again. This is a beautiful flavoured cigar.”
“Yes, I’ve got a very choice brand; the best I’ve had for many a day.” The doctor lighted one for himself. “Very good flavour indeed. Well, as you were saying—go on with your history.”
“Oh, I was merely observing that I was at one time thought a goodish bit of by some heavy swells.”
“Yes. Proceed. And your wife—was she with you at this time?”
“We didn’t live many months together.”
“Not many months! Your nuptial bliss was, indeed, of but a short duration.”
“No, not many months. You see she was too good for me. The fact is, she was but a chit of a girl when I married her, who didn’t know her own mind. It was a runaway match. I was passionately fond of her at the time, but I found out afterwards that I had made a mistake. She was a delicate sensitive thing, had been well brought up, and I was not the sort of man she ought to have chosen for a husband. She soon found that out. She got sick and weary of me, and——”
“And what?”
“Well, we parted. She said she wished to leave me, and I knew she would do so in any case, whether I liked it or not; so I thought it best to consent to a separation. ’Cause, you see, she had an admirer.”