Jupp, and the meeting
between my hero and his former landlady was postponed sine die, for
his determination had hardly been formed and he had not gone more than
a hundred yards in the direction of Mrs. Jupp's house, when a woman
accosted him.
He was turning from her, as he had turned from so many others,
when she started back with a movement that aroused his curiosity. He
had hardly seen her face, but being determined to catch sight of it,
followed her as she hurried away, and passed her; then turning round
he saw that she was none other than Ellen, the housemaid who had
been dismissed by his mother eight years previously.
He ought to have assigned Ellen's unwillingness to see him to its
true cause, but a guilty conscience made him think she had heard of
his disgrace and was turning away from him in contempt. Brave as had
been his resolutions about facing the world, this was more than he was
prepared for. "What! you too shun me, Ellen?" he exclaimed.
The girl was crying bitterly and did not understand him. "Oh, Master
Ernest," she sobbed, "let me go; you are too good for the likes of
me to speak to now."
"Why, Ellen," said he, "what nonsense you talk; you haven't been
in prison, have you?"
"Oh, no, no, no, not so bad as that," she exclaimed passionately.
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