“No, no, I thank you; I shall be better presently. A little faintness came over me, doubtless from the interest I feel in the history you have related to me.”
With great effort Mr. Barry commanded himself, as he said in a trembling voice, “And the name of this singular person is——”
“Margaret Catchpole,” replied Mrs. Palmer, as he seemed to pause.
Overpowered by emotion of the most conflicting kind, Mr. Barry was completely unmanned. Accustomed for so long a time to smother his affections, he now found his heart bursting with the fullness of agony at finding the being so highly recommended to him, and one whom he had never ceased to love—a convict.
“Oh, my respected friend!" he exclaimed, “I loved that woman long before I came to this country. I love her still—I confess I love her now; I cannot, I do not, from all I know of her, and from all you tell me, believe her to be an abandoned character;—but she is a convict.”
“Alas! she is,” replied Mrs. Palmer. “You astonish, you amaze me, Mr. Barry. Does she know your situation in this country?”
“I should think not, for I have had no information of hers up to this time. You must know that I would have brought her out to this country as my wife, but she was then attached to another. That other, I fear, was shot by my brother. He was a smuggler, and my brother was in the preventive service. She may not retain any feeling towards me but respect.”
“I have never heard her mention your name, nor had I the slightest hint of these circumstances. I do not think she dreams of your existence. This is a large country, Mr. Barry, and if your name and fame in it have ever reached her ear, depend upon it she does not think that you are the person who once addressed her. But if she should hear it, I can tell you that she is so truly humble a creature, that she would think it presumption even to fancy that you could still love her. She is the meekest and most affectionate creature I ever knew.”
“I can believe it, if she is anything like what I remember of her; she is warm-hearted, honest, open, and sincere, but uneducated.”