At the same time, whoever has not faced about is on the
way to a capacity for worse things than even our enemies would
believe of us.
Her very existence seemed to her now at stake. If by his dying
act Mr. Redmain should drive her from under Hesper's roof, what
was to become of her! Durnmelling, too, would then be as
certainly closed against her, and she would be compelled to take
a situation, and teach music, which she hated, and French and
German, which gave her no pleasure apart from certain strata of
their literature, to insolent girls whom she would be constantly
wishing to strangle, or stupid little boys who would bore her to
death. Her very soul sickened at the thought--as well it might;
for to have to do such service with such a heart as hers, must
indeed be torment. All hope of marrying Godfrey Wardour would be
gone, of course. Did he but remain uncertain as to the truth or
falsehood of a third part of what Mr. Redmain would record
against her, he would never meet her again!
Since the commencement of this last attack of Mr. Redmain's
malady, she had scarcely slept; and now what Mewks reported
rendered her nigh crazy. For some time she had been generally
awake half the night, and all the last night she had been
wandering here and there about the house, not unfrequently
couched where she could hear every motion in Mr. Redmain's room.
Pages:
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613