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208 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
was—in days when I own I was little better! I have deeply
repented since, Caroline ; of nothing more than of my conduct to
you ; for you were worthy of a better fate, and you loved me
truly—madly."
" Yes," says Caroline.
"I was wild then! I was desperate! I had ruined my
fortunes, estranged my father from me, was hiding from my
creditors under an assumed name—that under which I saw you.
Ah, why did I ever come to your house, my poor child? The
mark of the demon was upon me. I did not dare to speak of
marriage before my father. You have yours, and tend him with
your ever constant goodness. Do you know that my father would
not see me when he died ? Oh, it's a cruel thing to think of!" and
the suffering creature slaps his tall forehead with his trembling
hand ; and some of his grief about his own father, I daresay, is
sincere, for he feels the shame and remorse of being alienated from
his own son.
As for the marriage—that it was a most wicked and unjustifiable
deceit, he owned ; but he was wild when it took place, wild
with debt and with despair at his father's estrangement from him—
but the fact was, it was no marriage.
" I am glad of that !" sighed the poor Little Sister.
" Why ?" asked the other eagerly. His love was dead, but his
vanity was still hale and well. " Did you care for somebody else,
Caroline ? Did you forget your George, whom you used to _______ "
" No!" said the little woman bravely. " But I couldn't live
with a man who behaved to any woman so dishonest as you behaved
to me. I liked you because I thought you was a gentleman.
My poor painter was whom you used to despise and trample to
hearth—and my dear dear Philip is, Mr. Firmin. But gentlemen
tell the truth ! Gentlemen don't deceive poor innocent girls, and
desert 'em without a penuy ! "
" Caroline ! I was driven by my creditors. I ________ "
"Never mind. It's over now. I bear you no malice, Mr.
Firmin, but I would not marry you, no, not to be doctor's wife
to the Queen !"
This had been the Little Sister's language when there was no
thought of the existence of Hunt, the clergyman who had celebrated
their marriage ; and I don't know whether Firmin was most piqued
or pleased at the divorce which the little woman pronounced of her
own decree. But when the ill-omened Hunt made his appearance,
doubts and terrors filled the physician's mind. Hunt was needy,
greedy, treacherous, unscrupulous, desperate. He could hold this
marriage over the Doctor. He could threaten, extort, expose,