A _loan_, Madam;
and you need not pay it for three months--three whole months--_there_!'
Well, this time it ended as heretofore--poor Mrs. Mack gave way. She had
not a crown-piece, indeed, that she could call her own; but M. M. was
obliging, and let her off for a bill of exchange, the nature of which,
to her dying day, the unhappy widow could never comprehend, although it
caused her considerable affliction some short time subsequently.
Away went Mary Matchwell with her prize, leaving an odour of brandy
behind her. Her dingy and sinister squire performed his clumsy
courtesies, and without looking to the right or left, climbed into the
coach after her, with his red trunk in his hand; and the vehicle was
again in motion, and jingling on at a fair pace in the direction of
Nutter's house, The Mills, where her last visit had ended so tragically.
Now, it so happened that just as this coach, with its sombre occupants,
drew up at The Mills, Doctor Toole was standing on the steps, giving
Moggy a parting injunction, after his wont; for poor little Mrs. Nutter
had been thrown into a new paroxysm by the dreadful tidings of her
Charlie's death, and was now lying on her bed, and bathing the pillow in
her tears.
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