A nearer view of the
disturbed features of the visitor confirmed Miss Peyton in her belief;
and, with the shock that gentle feelings ever experience at a sudden and
endless separation from even the meanest of their associates, she said
hastily,--
"Katy, is he gone?"
"No, ma'am," replied the disturbed damsel, with great bitterness, "he is
not yet gone, but he may go as soon as he pleases now, for the worst is
done. I do verily believe, Miss Peyton, they haven't so much as left him
money enough to buy him another suit of clothes to cover his nakedness,
and those he has on are none of the best, I can tell you."
"How!" exclaimed the other, astonished, "could anyone have the heart to
plunder a man in such distress?"
"Hearts," repeated Katy, catching her breath. "Men like them have no
bowels" at all. Plunder and distress, indeed! Why, ma'am, there were in
the iron pot, in plain sight, fifty-four guineas of gold, besides what
lay underneath, which I couldn't count without handling; and I didn't
like to touch it, for they say that another's gold is apt to stick--so,
judging from that in sight, there wasn't less than two hundred guineas,
besides what might have been in the deerskin purse. But Harvey is little
better now than a beggar; and a beggar, Miss Jeanette, is the most
awfully despisable of all earthly creatures.
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