" I said all this very smartly; for the fact
is, my blood was up at the time, and I determined to rate my dear girl
soundly.
"Oh! Sammy," said she, sobbing (for the poor thing's spirit was quite
broken), "it's all true; I've been very, very foolish and vain, and I've
punished my dear husband and children by my follies, and I do so,
so repent them!" Here Jemimarann at once burst out crying, and flung
herself into her mamma's arms, and the pair roared and sobbed for ten
minutes together. Even Tug looked queer: and as for me, it's a most
extraordinary thing, but I'm blest if seeing them so miserable didn't
make me quite happy.--I don't think, for the whole twelve months of
our good fortune, I had ever felt so gay as in that dismal room in the
Fleet, where I was locked up.
Poor Orlando Crump came to see us every day; and we, who had never
taken the slightest notice of him in Portland Place, and treated him so
cruelly that day at Beulah Spa, were only too glad of his company now.
He used to bring books for my girl, and a bottle of sherry for me; and
he used to take home Jemmy's fronts and dress them for her; and when
locking-up time came, he used to see the ladies home to their little
three-pair bedroom in Holborn, where they slept now, Tug and all. "Can
the bird forget its nest?" Orlando used to say (he was a romantic
young fellow, that's the truth, and blew the flute and read Lord Byron
incessantly, since he was separated from Jemimarann).
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