"And what changed your purpose?"
"What always changes a man's purpose? A woman. Here, pass over that Madeira. Do you know, I have more than half a mind to tell you the whole story."
"Should I not feel honored by the confidence?"
"Well you may, for I've never yet told it to any one; but the sight of that girl and you in love with her—oh, never mind coloring up like that. I knew it the moment you set foot on the ship—the sight of you two, I say, brings it all back."
"You were in love once?"
"Ay, that I was, as deep as you or any other fool."
"Was the girl English?"
"Ay, and a tall, straight, handsome girl as ever you saw, in those days,—far handsomer than her sister, who is and always was a weakling, with no more expression than a basin of hasty pudding."
"She is living, then?"