"Now read this," said she, thrusting another paper into his hand, "for you 'll see it is even worse."
"My heart bleeds for you, my dear Mrs. Gore," said he, taking off his spectacles and wiping his eyes, and red enough they were afterwards, for there was snuff on his handkerchief,--"my heart bleeds for you!"
These were his words; and why I didn't break open the door when I heard them, is more than I can tell.
"I was certain of your sympathy; I knew you 'd feel for me, my dear Mr. Dodd," said she, sobbing.
"Of course you were," said I to myself. "He was the kind of old fool you wanted. But, faith, he shall feel for _me_, too, or my name is not Jemima."
"I don't suppose you ever heard of so cruel a case?" said she, still sobbing.
"Never,--never," cried he, clasping his hands. "I did n't believe it was in the nature of man to treat youth, beauty, and loveliness with such inhumanity. One that could do it must be a Creole Indian."
"Ah, Mr. Dodd!" said she, looking up into his eyes.
"In Tartary, or the Tropics," said he, "such wretches may be found, but in our own country and our own age--"
"Ah, Mr. Dodd," said she, again, "it is only in an Irish heart such generous emotions have their home!"
The artful hussey, she knew the tenderest spot of his nature by an instinct! for if there was anything he could n't resist, it was the appeal to his being Irish. And to show you, Molly, the designing craft of her, _she_ knew that weakness of K. I. in less than a month's acquaintance, that _I_ did n't find out till I was eight or nine years married to him.
For a minute or two my feelings overcame me so much that I could n't look or listen to them; but when I did, she had her hand on his arm, and was saying in the softest voice,--
"I may, then, count upon your kindness,--I may rest assured of your friendship."
"That you may,--that you may, my dear madam," said he.
Yes, Molly, he called her "madam" to her own face.
"If there should be any cruel enough, ungenerous enough, or base enough," sobbed she, "to calumniate me, _you_ will be my protector; and beneath _your_ roof shall I find my refuge. _Your_ character--your station in society--the honorable position you have ever held in the world--your claims as a father--your age--will all give the best contradiction to any scandal that malevolence can invent. Those dear venerable locks--"
