She
had taken to me, as the phrase goes, from the very first. She was the
gentlest, most engaging child I had ever met with--a little grave for her
years, and tenderly thoughtful of others.
"One evening Mrs. Nowell sent for me. I went up to the drawing-room
immediately, and found her sitting in an easy-chair propped up by
pillows, and very much changed for the worse since I had seen her last.
She told me that she had discovered the secret of my goodness to her, as
she called it, from the landlady, and that she had sent for me to thank
me.
"'I can give you nothing but thanks and blessings,' she said, 'for I am
the most helpless creature in this world. I suppose my husband will come
here before I die, and will relieve you from the risk you have taken for
me; but he can never repay you for your goodness.'
"I told her to give herself no trouble on my account; but I could not
help saying, that I thought her husband had behaved shamefully in not
coming to England to her long ere this.
"'He knows that you are ill, I suppose?' I said.
"'O yes, he knows that. I was ill when he sent me home. We had been
travelling about the Continent almost ever since our marriage. He married
me against his father's will, and lost all chance of a great fortune by
doing so. I did not know how much he sacrificed at the time, or I should
never have consented to his losing so much for my sake.
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