“Oh,” she said, “You are young; you can fight your own battle.”
She was for selling everything, but I objected to my furniture being sold, as I thought I might be able to get a living by letting apartments.
My rooms were well furnished, though I had no carpets, and Jack bought every stick that was in them. We divided all the money that was in the house, about £5, and sold the trap, harness, cushions, and rug for £8, though he had given £14 for the trap alone.
It does not matter to whom they were sold, because the man who bought them did not know at that time that we were other than very respectable people, and I should not like to expose him as having had dealings with us.
Hannah took all the moveables. We divided the ready money, and parted.
I was very firm about the furniture, which Jack said he had bought to be my own. If I liked, he said, he would buy me more.
I was to have had a piano on the 14th December last, as a birthday present.
Heigho! I cannot help feeling that I have made a great mistake. It has blotted my life; but there, I am not going to be sentimental any more. I am not a sentimental sort.
Mrs. Thompson then went on to state that when she found herself quite alone she had applied to a gentleman who had befriended her, and through whom she received the following letter from the wretched man in prison:—
“From John Ward,