, he
has got fourteen years' transportation now, an' that'll take the shine
pretty well out of him before he comes back."

"How did the poor gal take it?" asked Jack.

Dick replied that she was very bad at first, but that she got somewhat
comforted by the way her father behaved to her and listened to her
readin' o' the Bible after he was condemned. It might be that the death
of his old mother had softened him a bit, for she died with his name on
her lips, her last words being, "Oh Morley, give it up, my darling boy,
give it up; it's your only chance to give it up, for you inherit it, my
poor boy; the passion and the poison are in your blood; oh, give it up,
Morley, give it up!"

"They do say," continued Dick, "that Jones broke down altogether w'en he
heard that, an' fell on his gal's neck an' cried like a babby. But for
my part I don't much believe in them deathbed repentances--for it's much
the same thing wi' Jones now, he bein' as good as dead. It's not wot a
man _says_, but how a man _lives_, as'll weigh for or against him in the
end."

"An' what more did he say?" asked Jerry MacGowl, stopping down the
tobacco in his pipe with one of his fire-proof fingers; "you see, havin'
bin on the sick-list so long, I haven't got up all the details o' this
business."

"He didn't say much more," replied Dick, scraping away at the sea-weed
and barnacles with renewed vigour, "only he made his darter promise that
she'd marry Jim Welton as soon after he was gone as possible. She did
nothing but cry, poor thing, and wouldn't hear of it at first, but he
was so strong about it, saying that the thought of her being so well
married was the only thing as would comfort him w'en he was gone, that
she gave in at last."

"Sure then she'll have to make up her mind," said Jerry, "to live on
air, which is too light food intirely for any wan excep' hummin'-birds
and potes."

"She'll do better than that, mate," returned Dick, "for Jim 'as got
appointed to be assistant-keeper to a light'ouse, through that fust-rate
gen'leman Mr Durant, who is 'and an' glove, I'm told, wi' the Elder
Brethren up at the Trinity 'Ouse. It's said that they are to be spliced
in a week or two, but, owin' to the circumstances, the weddin' is to be
kep' quite priwate."

"Good luck to em!" cried Jerry. "Talkin' of the Durants, I s'pose ye've
heard that there's goin' to be a weddin' in that family soon?"

"Oh, yes, I've heard on it," cried Dick; "Miss Durant--