experience. Lord, if you
had seen him--the handsomest, brightest, gayest young chap! And he was
what some folks call well-born, too; he was the son--that is, though, in
a left-handed sort of way, it's true--of mad Carew of Crompton, about
whose death the papers were so full a month ago or so; and that, in my
judgment, was the secret of all his misfortune: it was the Carew blood
as did it. To take his own way in the world; to seek nobody's advice,
nor use it if 'twas given; to be spoiled and petted by all the women and
half the men as came nigh him; to own no master nor authority; to act
without thought, and to scorn consequences--well, all that was bred in
the bone with him."

"Then he had never any one to look after him at home, I reckon, Mr.
Dodge?"

"Well, yes; he had a mother; and though she was a queer one too, she
loved him dearly. She was the cleverest woman, Weasel used to say, as
ever he had to do with; and a perfect lady too, mind you. She worked to
get the poor lad off like a slave; and when all was over, instead of
breaking down, as most would, she swallowed her pride, and went down on
her bended knees to that old miserly devil, Trevethick, the prosecutor,
and to his son-in-law, Coe, likewise: they lived down Cross Key
way--where was it?--at Gethin--and begged and prayed him to join in
petitioning in her son's favor. She got down there the very day after
his lying daughter was married to Solomon Coe, he as has got Dunloppel,
and is a big man now. But he'll never be any thing but a scurvy lot, if
he was to be king o' Cornwall. I shall never forget the way he insulted
that poor young fellow when he was took up. Damme, I would have given a
ten-pound note to have had _him_ charged with something, and I'd ha'
seen that the handcuffs weren't none too big for his wrists neither."

"And this Trevethick refused to help the lady, did he?"

"Why, of course he did. He broke her heart, poor soul. I saw her when
she passed through Plymouth afterward, and she looked twenty years older
than before that trial. Even then she didn't give the matter up, but
laid it before the crown. But poor Yorke had offended government--helped
some fool or another through one of them public examinations; he had
wits enough for any thing, had that young fellow. But there--I can't
a-bear to talk about him; and yet somehow I can't help doing on it when
I get into this room. He sat just where that gentleman sits yonder. I
think I see him now,