lady!--was living under his protection. He told Westerfield he
was very fond of her, and he hated the idea of getting married.
'If your wife's first child turns out to be a son,' he said,
'there is an heir to the title and estates, and I may go on as I
am now.' We were married a month afterward--and when my first
child was born it was a girl. I leave you to judge what the
disappointment was! My lord (persuaded, as I suspect, by the
woman I mentioned just now) ran the risk of waiting another year,
and a year afterward, rather than be married. Through all that
time, I had no other child or prospect of a child. His lordship
was fairly driven into taking a wife. Ah, how I hate her! _Their_
first child was a boy--a big, bouncing, healthy brute of a boy!
And six months afterward, my poor little fellow was born. Only
think of it! And tell me, Jemmy, don't I deserve to be a happy
woman, after suffering such a dreadful disappointment as that? Is
it true that you're going back to America?"

"Quite true."

"Take me back with you."

"With a couple of children?"

"No. Only with one. I can dispose of the other in England. Wait a
little before you say No. Do you want money?"

"You couldn't help me, if I did."

"Marry me, and I can help you to a fortune."