I think my love for her was something like the compassion one feels
for some young feeble bird that has fallen out of its nest. So we were
married one morning; and for some time lived in lodgings at Putney, where
I used to suffer considerable affliction from Count Ugolino and two bony
boys, Bessie's brothers, who looked as if the Count had been acting up
to his character with too great a fidelity. Ugolino himself would come
prowling out of a Saturday afternoon to borrow the wherewithal to pay his
week's lodging, lest he should be cast out into the streets at nightfall;
and it was a common thing for one of the bony boys to appear at
breakfast-time with a duplicate of his father's coat, pledged over-night
for drink, and without the means of redeeming which he could not pursue his
honourable vocation. In short, I think it was as much the affliction of the
Ugolino family as my own entanglements that drove me to seek my fortunes on
the other side of the world."
Austin Lovel opened one of the doors, and called his wife "Come here,
Bessie; I've a pleasant surprise for you."
Mrs. Lovel appeared quickly in answer to this summons. She had changed her
morning dress for a purple silk, which was smartly trimmed, but by no means
fresh, and she had dressed her hair, and refreshed her complexion by a
liberal application of violet powder. She had a look which can only be
described as "flashy"--a look that struck Clarissa unpleasantly, in spite
of herself.
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