“Well, it's more than I expected when I saw you first, and I kept saying to myself, 'Whatever could have persuaded Joe to send me a creature like that?' To tell you the truth, I thought you were in the cheap funeral line.”
“Droll dog!” said I, while my fingers were writhing and twisting with passion.
“Not that it's fair to take a fellow by his looks. I'm aware of that, Potts. But go back to the parlor; that's the second time the maid has come out to see what keeps you. Go back, and enjoy yourself; maybe you won't have so pleasant an opportunity soon again.”
This was the parting speech of the wretch as he buttoned the collar of his coat, and with a short nod bade me goodbye, and left me.
“Why did you not ask your friend to take a cup of tea with us?'” said Kate, as I re-entered the drawing-room.
“Oh! it was the skipper, a rough sort of creature, not exactly made for drawing-room life; besides, he only came to ask me a question.”
“I hope it was not a very unpleasant one, for you look pale and anxious.”
“Nothing of the kind; a mere formal matter about my baggage.”
It was no use; from that moment, I was the most miserable of mankind. What availed it to speculate any longer on the future? How could I interest myself in what years might bring forth? Hours, and a very few of them, were all that were left to me. Poor girl! how tenderly she tried to divert my sorrow! She, most probably, ascribed it to the prospect of our speedy separation; and with delicacy and tact, she tried to trace out some faint outlines of what painters call “extreme distance,”—a sort of future where all the skies would be rose-colored and all the mountains blue. I am sure, if a choice had been given me at that instant, I would rather have been a courageous man than the greatest genius in the universe. I knew better what was before. At last it came to ten o'clock, and I arose to say good-bye. I found it very hard not to fall upon her neck and say, “Don't be angry with poor Potts; this is his last as it is his first embrace.”
“Wear that ring for me and for my sake,” said she, giving me one from her finger; “don't refuse me,—it has no value save what you may attach to it from having been mine.”