Harry. O Thornton! has it come to this?
Thornton. Yes, Maynard, I'm down: down deeper than I had you. There's no hope! Only a year, only a year! I was cheated. I, who thought myself so shrewd and keen, in one night lost all, and took to drink. Oh, it's glorious to drown all trouble in the flowing bowl! Ha, ha! but it gets you at last: it has me. I have begged, cheated, stolen, for a single draught. Give me a drink: a drop of brandy, only a drop to cool my burning throat!
Harry. You ask this of me, whom you so bitterly wronged?
Thornton. Yes, I did wrong you; but I loved that girl as I loved but one other! Maynard, Maynard, hear me! this one woman I wronged: she haunts me: she was my wife. I forsook her, cast her off. She came from your native town. Her name—her name was—Alice Clarke.
John. Alice Clarke—Jessie's mother!
Thornton. Jessie's mother! No, no; don't tell me that: don't make me a greater villain than I know myself to be.
John. She died beneath my roof, giving her child to my keeping.
Jessie. He is my father: stand back! Harry, my place is here! (Kneels, and supports him.)
Thornton (looks in her face). And I pursued you with a sinful love: brought him down to the very gates of death.
Jessie. All is forgotten, all forgiven, father.