Page:Original stories from real life 1796.pdf/99

Rh one day ſooner I ſhould have ſeen him, and he would not have died thinking me the moſt ungrateful wretch that ever burdened the earth! He then knocked his clinched fiſt againſt his forehead, looked wildly round the dreary apartment, and exclaimed in a choked, though impatient tone, You ſat here yeſterday, thinking of my ingratitude—Where are you now? Oh! that I had ſeen you! Oh! that my repenting ſighs could reach you!—

He ordered the body to be interred, and returned home a prey to grief and deſpondency. Indulging it to exceſs, he neglected to enquire after his friend's daughter; he intended to provide amply for her, but now he could only grieve.

Some time elapſed, then he ſent, and the intelligence which he procured aggravated his diſtreſs, and gave it a ſevere additional ſting.

The poor gentle girl had, during her father's life, been engaged to a worthy young man; but, ſome time after his death, the relations of her lover had ſent him to ſea Rh