Part 48 (2/2)

_Clem._ Why then annoy yourself, my dear Edward?

_Edw._ The confounded old junks!

_Clem._ Nay, Edward, recollect that he is dead--I can forgive him.

_Edw._ But I won't. Has he not dashed my cup of bliss to the ground?

Heavens! what delightful antic.i.p.ations I had formed of possessing you and competence--all gone!

_Clem._ All gone, dear Edward?

[_Mrs Jellybags, who has been sitting very still, takes her handkerchief from her eyes and listens._

_Edw._ Yes, gone!--gone for ever! Do you imagine, my ever dear Clementina, that I would be so base, so cruel, so regardless of you and your welfare, to entrap you into marriage with only one hundred and fifty pounds? No, no!--judge me better. I sacrifice myself--my happiness--all for you!--banish myself from your dear presence, and retire to pa.s.s the remainder of my existence in misery and regret, maddened with the feeling that some happier mortal will obtain that dear hand, and will rejoice in the possession of those charms which I had too fondly, too credulously, imagined as certain to be mine.

[_Takes out his handkerchief, and covers his face; Clementina also puts her handkerchief to her face and weeps. Mrs Jellybags nods her head ironically._

_Clem._ Edward!

_Edw._ My dear, dear Clementina!

_Clem._ You won't have me?

_Edw._ My honour forbids it. If you knew my feelings--how this poor heart is racked!

_Clem._ Don't leave me, Edward. Did you not say that for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, you would be mine, till death did us part?

_Edw._ Did I?

_Clem._ You know you did, Edward.

_Edw._ It's astonis.h.i.+ng how much nonsense we talk when in love. My dearest Clementina, let us be rational. We are almost without a sixpence. There is an old adage, that when poverty comes in at the door, love flies out of the window. Shall I then make you miserable! No, no!

Hear me, Clementina. I will be generous. I now absolve you from all your vows. You are free. Should the time ever come that prosperity s.h.i.+ne upon me, and I find that I have sufficient for both of us of that dross which I despise, then will I return, and, should my Clementina not have entered into any other engagement, throw my fortune and my person at her feet. Till then, dearest Clementina, farewell!

_Clem._ (_sinking into a chair sobbing._) Cruel Edward! Oh, my heart will break!

_Edw._ I can bear it myself no longer. Farewell! farewell!

[_Exit._

_Jel._ (_coming forward._) Well, this is some comfort. (_To Clementina._) Did not I tell you, Miss, that if you did not change your mind, others might?

_Clem._ Leave me, leave me.

_Jel._ No, I shan't; I have as good a right here as you, at all events.

I shall stay, Miss.

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