Jones had
discovered and pointed out to me a young woman who was remarkable
among her fellows for a pleasing and interesting air. She was poorly
clad, to the verge, if not over the line, of disrespectability, with
a ragged old jacket and a bit of a sealskin cap no bigger than your
fist; but her eyes, her whole expression, and her manner, even in
ordinary moments, told of a true womanly nature, capable of love,
anger, and devotion. She had a look, too, of refinement, like one
who might have been a better lady than most, had she been allowed the
opportunity. When alone she seemed preoccupied and sad; but she was
not often alone; there was usually by her side a heavy, dull, gross
man in rough clothes, chary of speech and gesture - not from caution,
but poverty of disposition; a man like a ditcher, unlovely and
uninteresting; whom she petted and tended and waited on with her eyes
as if he had been Amadis of Gaul. It was strange to see this hulking
fellow dog-sick, and this delicate, sad woman caring for him. He
seemed, from first to last, insensible of her caresses and
attentions, and she seemed unconscious of his insensibility.
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