A woman's love saved
him at the outset of his downward career. Let us not speak of her
harshly--for we laid her with him yesterday in the grave.
"You, who only knew Mrs. Vanstone in later life, when illness and sorrow
and secret care had altered and saddened her, can form no adequate
idea of her attractions of person and character when she was a girl
of seventeen. I was with Andrew when he first met her. I had tried
to rescue him, for one night at least, from degrading associates and
degrading pleasures, by persuading him to go with me to a ball given by
one of the great City Companies. There they met. She produced a strong
impression on him the moment he saw her. To me, as to him, she was
a total stranger. An introduction to her, obtained in the customary
manner, informed him that she was the daughter of one Mr. Blake.
The rest he discovered from herself. They were partners in the dance
(unobserved in that crowded ball-room) all through the evening.
"Circumstances were against her from the first. She was unhappy at home.
Her family and friends occupied no recognized station in life: they were
mean, underhand people, in every way unworthy of her.
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