“Ah, this dreamy reverie! It brings back the vanished years, for
‘’Twas just one year ago to-day,
That I remember well,’
when I began this record, at sea, on board the S.S. Irene. I wonder if Sir Marmaduke ever thinks of me. If he does, he thinks me—well, it doesn’t much matter now. He was a good sort, however, and I will never forget him.”
Kind of you, Leo Bergin. By golly! that fellow has a heart, and a head, too, for that matter, for he is rarely far wrong. He continues:—
“Yes, he was a generous old soul. Rich, good-natured and careless, but just. He read everything, but—well, perhaps if I had read as much as he, I would have thought and known as little.”
Leo Bergin, I swear I had rather you had forgotten me. That’s a nice way to speak of an absent friend. There is evidently a coolness between us. Yes, a cool belt, so I will keep my temper.
Proceed, Leo:—
“Had a note from Venesta to-day, and I don’t know whether it gives me more pleasure or sadness. Think of courting a girl, who never had a father or a mother, a sister or a brother! Daughter of the State! Marry the daughter of the State! Ye gods, what a mother-in-law!
“I have idled away the day, and how can I make amends, save by confession and the forming of new resolutions? Well,
“‘I resolve! yes, I resolve!
And then I sit me down
And watch that resolution die.
But, “To-morrow”—’