Read "Sink or Swim? , Volume III" by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A villain! Arthur Vavasour -- the "fine," noble-hearted, brilliant / gentleman to whom this simple-minded Honor had so looked up, and of the / loss of whose friendship she had been so afraid that she had "led him / on" -- the silly woman knew she had -- to fancy that she loved him better / than she did her husband -- was he in very truth a man to be avoided, / shunned, and looked on with contempt? She could not, did not think it / possible. He was accusing himself unjustly, working on her compassion, / speaking without reflection: anything and everything she could believe / possible rather than that her friend should deserve the odious epithet / which had just, to her extreme surprise, smote upon her ears. Before, / however, she could give words to that surprise, Arthur spoke again, and / with an impetuosity which almost seemed to take away his breath poured / forth his explanation of the text.
"Yes, a villain! You may well look astonished; and I expect, when you / know all, that you will turn your back upon me, Honor, as all the world / must; that is, if the world _has_ to be taken into my confidence, which / I still trust it will not be. There are extenuating circumstances / though, as the juries say; and perhaps, if I had been better _raised_, I / shouldn't have turned out such an out-and-out bad 'un as I have!"