"Oh, sir—I'm sure, sir—I didn't mean, sir—if I had known, sir—I beg a thousand pardons, sir—"
"Come up out o' that!" cried I, "leave the room, instantly."
The landlady vanished with a celerity that was rather remarkable, considering her extreme corpulence.
After a short pause, Mrs. Raymond said to me—
"You see to what abuse my circumstances subject me."
"Would to God my circumstances were such as to render you that assistance you so much need; would that I could raise you from such unendurable misery! But to speak without equivocation, my condition is as penniless as your own."
"Then you can, indeed, sympathize with my distress."
"Most sincerely; but you must not go alone in quest of that villainous husband;—and money will be necessary."
"This harp will—"
"Oh, no—you can never part with it."