"Mother, you was a good woman-you believed in religion and all that.
I didn't. I were allers a hard 'un--allers, and allers; but I'd give
the world,--mother, mother, hear me, hear me, ef you can, up in heaven
with God!--I'd give all the wide world to be _good_, GOOD, to-night!"
Again Bet seemed to hear Will and Hester singing to her--
"And I know that at last my message
Has passed through the golden gate,
And my heart is no longer restless,
And I am content to wait."
She rose to her feet. Her tears were over, her great grief was
lightened, but now a curious and inexplicable desire took possession
of her. She would not fail Isaac Dent. If she had broken every other
promise she would at least keep this one. She would marry him tomorrow,
and perhaps her mother's God would help her to be a good wife to him.
But she would--she must--go to Liverpool tonight. She had money enough
in her pocket to take her there; she looked at the coins, going close
to the window to see them the better in the moonlight, and saw that
she had sufficient to purchase a single third-class fare.
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