All the happiness I have known--at
least the greatest--since our troubles, has been in this house.
'But this has nothing to do with Mr Jones. I heard, casually from my
friend, Mrs Merryweather, that he had left them and gone to college;
what college, she did not say. For some years I had quite enough of
painful duty to perform to make me forget the weeks passed in his
society, and their termination; or to think of a person of whom I had
quite lost sight. About six or seven years ago, however, I heard of him,
strange to say, through my sister. I had, of course, told her of his
proposal and my refusal.
'She and her husband were among the early settlers at Melbourne, and in
the course of time became tolerably prosperous. He, you know, was
obliged to leave his regiment for drunkenness, and contrary to the usual
course of things, became steadier, though not steady, in Australia. My
sister lost two children in one week from fever, and during her great
sorrow, was constantly visited by the clergyman of her parish, who
turned out to be my early friend, Mr Jones. I do not think he knew she
was my sister for some time; but she described his untiring kindness and
gentleness as her greatest comfort during her troubles. He was also of
great benefit to her husband, by taking advantage of the opportunity
offered by the loss of his children, to press upon him the necessity of
a reformation in his own course of life, which, I am thankful to say,
has been gradually effected.
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