Come, what is it now?"
"And you really don't know what it is? Don't you know that there is a
wedding on hand?"
"A wedding!"
"Aye, man alive! A wedding! They are going to marry the child Jacquelina
to old Grimshaw."
"Oh, yes, I know that; but, my dear boy, what of it? Surely you were
never in love with little Jacko?"
"In love with her! ha! ha! no, not as you understand it! who take it to
be that fantastical passion that may be inspired by the first sight of a
pretty face. No! I am not in love with her, unless I could be in love
with myself. For Lina was my other self. Oh, you who can talk so glibly
of being 'in love,' little know that strength of attachment when two
hearts have grown together from childhood."
"It is like a brother's and a sister's."
"Never! brothers and sisters cannot love so. What brother ever loved a
sister as I have loved Lina from our infancy? What brother ever would
have done and suffered as much for his sister as I have for Lina?"
"You! done and suffered for Lina!" said Thurston, beginning to think he
was really mad.
"Yes! how many faults as a boy I have shouldered for her. How many
floggings I have taken. How many shames I have borne for her, which she
never knew.
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