"
The captain dropped heavily down into the chair nearest him. He was
deeply wounded by the idea that his daughter had deserted the home
which he had made for her.
"Begging your pardon, sir," interposed Mrs. Mugby, in her most
insinuating tone, "which I am well aware it's not my place to interfere
in family matters; but knowing as devotion itself is a word not strong
enough to express Mrs. Jernam's feelings for her pa, I cannot stand by
and see her misunderstood by that very pa. It was no doings of hers as
she left River View, Captain Buncombe, for the place was very dear to
her; but Captain Jernam, he took it into his head all of a sudden he'd
set off for foreign parts in his ship the 'Albert's horse'; and before
he went, he insisted on taking Mrs. Jernam down to Devonshire, which
burying her alive would be too mild a word for such cruelty, I think."
"What! he deserted his post, did he?" exclaimed the captain. "Ran away
from his pretty young wife, after promising to stop with her till I
came back! Now, I don't call that an honest man's conduct," added the
captain, indignantly.
"No more would any one, sir," answered the housekeeper. "A wild, roving
life is all very well in its way, but if a man who is just married to a
pretty young wife, that worships the very ground he walks on, can't
stay at home quiet, I should like to know who can?"
"So he went to sea himself, and took his wife down to Devonshire before
he sailed, eh?" said the captain.
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