“I suppose I must run the risk. But remember how soon a young girl’s name may be breathed upon, and sullied. Molly has no mother, and for that very reason she ought to move among you all as unharmed as Una herself.”
“Mr. Gibson, if you wish it, I’ll swear it on the Bible,” cried the excitable young man.
“Nonsense. As if your word, if it’s worth anything, was not enough! We’ll shake hands upon it, if you like.”
Mr. Coxe came forward eagerly, and almost squeezed Mr. Gibson’s ring into his finger.
As he was leaving the room, he said, a little uneasily, “May I give Bethia a crown-piece?”
“No, indeed! Leave Bethia to me. I hope you won’t say another word to her while she is here. I shall see that she gets a respectable place when she goes away.”
Heart Trouble
From Mr. Harrison’s Confessions, The Ladies’ Companion, 1851
Miss Caroline always received me, and kept me talking in her washed-out style, after I had seen my patient. One day she told me she thought she had a weakness about the heart, and would be glad if I would bring my stethoscope the next time, which I accordingly did! and, while I was on my hands and knees listening to the pulsations, one of the young ladies came in. She said:
“Oh, dear! I never! I beg your pardon, ma’am,” and scuttled out. There was not much the matter with Miss Caroline’s heart: a little feeble in action or so, a mere matter of weakness and general languor. When I went down I saw two or three of the girls peeping out of the half-closed schoolroom door, but they shut it immediately, and I heard them laughing. The next time I called, Miss Tomkinson was sitting in state to receive me.