"I heard him preach a sermon awhile ago," said the patient, "that made me tremble all over. He's a great preacher. I wish I was as good as he is."
Patty made some remark about his having been a good boy.
"Well, I don't know," said the patient; "I used to hear that he had been a little hard—swore and drank and gambled, to say nothing of dancing and betting on horses. But they said some girl jilted him in that day. I suppose he got into bad habits because she jilted him, or else she jilted him because he was bad. Do you know anything about it?"
"Yes."
"She's a heartless thing, I suppose?"
Patty reddened, but the sick man did not see it. She was going to defend herself—he must know that she was the person—but how? Then she remembered that he was only repeating what had been a matter of common gossip, and some feeling of mischievousness led her to answer:
"She acted badly—turned him off because he became a Methodist."
"But there was trouble before that, I thought. When he gambled away his coat and hat one night."
"Trouble with her father, I think," said Patty, casting about in her own mind how she might change the conversation.
"Is she alive yet?" he asked.