He was impelled, by a feeling that he could not conquer,
however, to look Captain Lawton in the face. The trooper had arranged
every muscle of his countenance to express sympathy for the fate of the
poor child; but the exultation of his eyes cut the astounded man of
science to the quick; he muttered something concerning the condition of
his patients, and retreated with precipitation.
Miss Peyton entered into the situation of things at the house of the
peddler, with all the interest of her excellent feelings; she listened
patiently while Katy recounted, more particularly, the circumstances of
the past night as they had occurred. The spinster did not forget to
dwell on the magnitude of the pecuniary loss sustained by Harvey, and in
no manner spared her invectives, at his betraying a secret which might
so easily have been kept.
"For, Miss Peyton," continued the housekeeper, after a pause to take
breath, "I would have given up life before I would have given up that
secret. At the most, they could only have killed him, and now a body may
say that they have slain both soul and body; or, what's the same thing,
they have made him a despisable vagabond. I wonder who he thinks would
be his wife, or who would keep his house, For my part, my good name is
too precious to be living with a lone man; though, for the matter of
that, he is never there.
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