I was too deeply affected by his noble conduct
to speak. I closed my eyes; I put his hand, in a kind of spiritual
self-forgetfulness, to my lips. He murmured a soft remonstrance. Oh the
ecstasy, the pure, unearthly ecstasy of that moment! I sat--I hardly
know on what--quite lost in my own exalted feelings. When I opened
my eyes again, it was like descending from heaven to earth. There was
nobody but my aunt in the room. He had gone.
I should like to stop here--I should like to close my narrative with
the record of Mr. Godfrey's noble conduct. Unhappily there is more, much
more, which the unrelenting pecuniary pressure of Mr. Blake's cheque
obliges me to tell. The painful disclosures which were to reveal
themselves in my presence, during that Tuesday's visit to Montagu
Square, were not at an end yet.
Finding myself alone with Lady Verinder, I turned naturally to the
subject of her health; touching delicately on the strange anxiety which
she had shown to conceal her indisposition, and the remedy applied to
it, from the observation of her daughter.
My aunt's reply greatly surprised me.
"Drusilla," she said (if I have not already mentioned that my Christian
name is Drusilla, permit me to mention it now), "you are touching quite
innocently, I know--on a very distressing subject.
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