I am in trouble."
"No doubt; enthusiastic people always are. You fretted your nurse
and your mother, your schoolmaster, your mistress, and, most of all,
yourself. A sharp sword cuts its own scabbard."
"She is gone,--left me without a word."
"Who, the Sandford woman? I always told you she would."
"No,--I left her, though not so soon as I should."
"A fine story! She jilted you."
"No,--on my honor. I'll tell you about it some other time. But Alice, my
betrothed, I have lost her forever."
"Melancholy Orpheus, how? Did you look over your shoulder, and did she
vanish into smoke?"
"It is her father who has gone over the Styx. She is in life; but she
has heard of my flirtation"--
"And served you right by leaving you. Now you will quit capering in a
lady's chamber, and go to work, a sadder and a wiser man."
"Not till I have found her. You may think me a trifler, Easelmann; but
every nerve I have is quivering with agony at the thought of the pain I
have caused her.
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