harum-scarum military officer who had got into difficulties, and had his
pay sequestrated. He was dead now, and her mother too, and she was as
lonely as I. This young creature was staying at the boarding-house where
I happened to have my lodging; and when I was pulled down she took upon
herself to nurse me. From that she got to have a foolish liking for me.
Heaven knows why, for I wasn't worth it. But being together in the same
house, and her feeling warm, we got naturally intimate. I won't go into
particulars of what our relations were. It is enough to say that we
honestly meant to marry. There arose a scandal, which did me no harm,
but was of course ruin to her. Though, Farfrae, between you and me, as
man and man, I solemnly declare that philandering with womankind
has neither been my vice nor my virtue. She was terribly careless of
appearances, and I was perhaps more, because o' my dreary state; and it
was through this that the scandal arose. At last I was well, and came
away. When I was gone she suffered much on my account, and didn't forget
to tell me so in letters one after another; till latterly, I felt I
owed her something, and thought that, as I had not heard of Susan for so
long, I would make this other one the only return I could make, and ask
her if she would run the risk of Susan being alive (very slight as I
believed) and marry me, such as I was. She jumped for joy, and we should
no doubt soon have been married--but, behold, Susan appears!"

Donald showed his deep concern at a complication so far beyond the
degree of his simple experiences.

"Now see what injury a man may cause around him! Even after that
wrong-doing at the fair when I was young, if I had never been so selfish
as to let this giddy girl devote herself to me over at Jersey, to the
injury of her name, all might now be well. Yet, as it stands, I must
bitterly disappoint one of these women; and it is the second. My first