Read "The Fatal Boots" by William Makepeace Thackeray online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
See, now, what life is! I have had ill-luck on ill-luck from that day / to this. I have sunk in the world, and, instead of riding my horse and / drinking my wine, as a real gentleman should, have hardly enough now to / buy a pint of ale; ay, and am very glad when anybody will treat me to / one. Why, why was I born to undergo such unmerited misfortunes?
You must know that very soon after my adventure with Miss Crutty, and / that cowardly ruffian, Captain Waters (he sailed the day after his / insult to me, or I should most certainly have blown his brains out; NOW / he is living in England, and is my relation; but, of course, I cut the / fellow) -- very soon after these painful events another happened, which / ended, too, in a sad disappointment. My dear papa died, and, instead of / leaving five thousand pounds, as I expected at the very least, left only / his estate, which was worth but two. The land and house were left to / me; to mamma and my sisters he left, to be sure, a sum of two thousand / pounds in the hands of that eminent firm Messrs. Pump, Aldgate and Co., / which failed within six months after his demise, and paid in five years / about one shilling and ninepence in the pound; which really was all my / dear mother and sisters had to live upon.