consider myself a shabby sort of fellow, especially if you wanted the
money badly. Yet I promised that girl just as distinctly; and then
coolly broke my word, as if doing so were rather smart conduct than a
mean action, for which the poor victim herself, encumbered with a
child, and not I, had really to pay the penalty, in spite of certain
pecuniary aid that was given. There, that's the retrospective
trouble that I am always unearthing; and you may hardly believe that
though so many years have elapsed, and it is all gone by and done
with, and she must be getting on for an old woman now, as I am for an
old man, it really often destroys my sense of self-respect still.'

'O, I can understand it. All depends upon the temperament.
Thousands of men would have forgotten all about it; so would you,
perhaps, if you had married and had a family. Did she ever marry?'

'I don't think so. O no--she never did. She left Toneborough, and
later on appeared under another name at Exonbury, in the next county,
where she was not known. It is very seldom that I go down into that
part of the country, but in passing through Exonbury, on one
occasion, I learnt that she was quite a settled resident there, as a
teacher of music, or something of the kind. That much I casually
heard when I was there two or three years ago. But I have never set
eyes on her since our original acquaintance, and should not know her
if I met her.'

'Did the child live?' asked the doctor.

'For several years, certainly,' replied his friend. 'I cannot say if
she is living now. It was a little girl. She might be married by
this time as far as years go.'