Read "Mrs. Falchion, Volume 2" by Gilbert Parker online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When Phil's pal left us he went wandering down the hillside, talking to himself. Long afterwards he told me how he felt, and I reproduce his phrases as nearly as I can.
"Knocked 'em, I guess," he said, "with that about Jo Brackenbury. Poor Jo! Stuck together, him and me did, after she got the steel in her heart. ". He pulled himself together, shuddering. "Went back on me, she did, and took up with a cursed swell, and got it cold -- cold. And I? By Judas! I never was shut of that. I've known women, many of 'em, all countries, but she was different. I expect now, after all these years, that if I got my hand on the devil that done for her, I'd rattle his breath in his throat. There's things that clings. She clings, Jo Brackenbury clings, and Phil Boldrick clings; and they're gone, and I'm left to go it alone. To play the single hand -- what! -- by Jiminy!"