I was fool enough, when he told me his story, to feel some interest and some pity for him⁠—which was just what he calculated on, as you will see. I thought him hardly used. It was not his fault that his father and mother were not married, and it was not his father’s and mother’s fault either. A more scrupulous woman than I was⁠—a woman who had not set her heart on a gold watch and chain⁠—would have found some excuses for him. At all events, I held my tongue, and helped to screen what he was about.