Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/63

Rh at that dd club: so farewell to it and you. Whenever I meet you on honest ground or under a christian roof, I shall be glad to see you; but never more shall you entice me to that devil's den!'

"This was shameful language, but I shook hands with him, and we parted. He kept his word; and from that time forward, he has been a pattern of propriety, as far as I can tell; but, till lately, I have not had very much to do with him. He occasionally sought my company but as frequently shrunk from it, fearing lest I should wile him back to destruction, and I found his not very entertaining, especially, as he sometimes attempted to awaken my conscience and draw me from the perdition he considered himself to have escaped; but when I did happen to meet him, I seldom failed to ask after the progress of his matrimonial efforts and researches, and, in general he could give me but a poor account. The mothers were repelled by his empty coffers and his reputation for gambling,