Miller; "you
are not ill, I hope, cousin? Some water, a dram this instant."
"Be not frighted, madam," cries Jones, "I have almost as much need
of a dram as your cousin. We are equally surprized at this
unexpected meeting. Your cousin is an acquaintance of mine, Mrs.
Miller."
"An acquaintance!" cries the man.-- "Oh, heaven!"
"Ay, an acquaintance," repeated Jones, "and an honoured acquaintance
too. When I do not love and honour the man who dares venture
everything to preserve his wife and children from instant destruction,
may I have a friend capable of disowning me in adversity!"
"Oh, you are an excellent young man," cries Mrs. Miller:- "Yes,
indeed, poor creature! he hath ventured everything.- If he had not
had one of the best of constitutions, it must have killed him."
"Cousin," cries the man, who had now pretty well recovered
himself, "this is the angel from heaven whom I meant. This is he to
whom, before I saw you, I owed the preservation of my Peggy. He it was
to whose generosity every comfort, every support which I have procured
for her, was owing. He is, indeed, the worthiest, bravest, noblest, of
all human beings. O cousin, I have obligations to this gentleman of
such a nature!"
"Mention nothing of obligations," cries Jones eagerly; "not a
word, I insist upon it, not a word" (meaning, I suppose, that he would
not have him betray the affair of the robbery to any person). "If,
by the trifle you have received from me, I have preserved a whole
family, sure pleasure was never bought so cheap.
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