The Illegal Marriage — page 71: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE. 63 “You remember when my father first sent me abroad? You know what kind of a boy Iwas. It was hard to be left at that age alone in a strange land, and without one true friend to advise me. “My father was liberal—too liberal with me, and [ had not a want that was unsupplied. The tempta- tions of Paris were too much for me, and for a time I plunged into all of the wild dissipations of that gay city. I was a scamp, I admit it; but I can truly say that I never yet wronged a living man willingly—never injured a person unintentionally that I did not make ample reparation.” “T am sure of that, Stannard,” interposed the doctor. “Do you remember what Sir Brooke Foss- brooke says? ‘There is great promise in a young fellow,’ he remarks, ‘when he can bea scamp and aman of honor; when dissipations do not degrade, and excesses do not corrupt a man, there is a grand nature beneath? Ido know your character well.” “Vou flatter me; but lrepeat that I never will- ingly injured a human being. My money was spent freely, but it was shared by all my friends—or those who pretended to be so. “T have since found out, Trippe, that a man may be too kind—too soft-hearted. I have found this out to my sorrow, for my fear of wronging one led me to bear as great an imposition as was ever put upon a boy. “During one of our vacations I went to Switzer- land for a tour, taking with me two friends who had long shared my purse. At Geneva one of these men—devils let me call them—wished to introduce me to his sister, who was, he said, at one of the pensionats—a school-girl, who had been there for some years. GComicboo SS} (Efe)