Page:Adams - A Child of the Age.djvu/182

170 to fear lest sofa; lay there with his face  groaning From that time  strange personal dislike to you  till at last  almost madness  considering the state of his health  did not, then, think it advisable  and as soon as you were able to bear the  village in Derbyshire. Most of the rest you know already; for it has been your own life, I mean your education at Mr. Whittaker's and subsequently at Glastonbury with Dr. Craven Your father while you were with Mr. Whittaker  died  Scotland  leaving his affairs in a  owing to his fatal confidence in It remains for me only to  ['What's this?']  Late one bleak, windy night last March, about a fortnight after I had seen you, coming from my club in Waterloo Place  Regent's Street  lamp-post  unhappy woman pestered me, and  [A low cry smothered itself in my throat, my eyes growing to the paper.] I turned, saying, 'Here is some money for you. For heaven's sake, go home and on such a night as this '  then suddenly caught me by the arm, and cried out: 'Captain James, Captain James, don't you know me?—I'm Isabel Leicester.' I fell against the lamp-post, and almost  The apparently reliable news of her death, the  seemed like a horrible dream. At first I could not then she told me that she had accidentally heard from a friend that he was dead, and had  and then asked about you. I answered nothing, for reasons which you will, I think, understand. But on her repeating her question, and adding that surely she had a right to know how you were, even if I refused to tell her where you were, I felt constrained to speak. I told her that you had been sent, first to a small school, and subsequently to a public school, where you had, I believed, done satisfactorily: and then proceeded to inform her of the events that had led up to your interview with myself about a fortnight ago, blaming myself as much as I justly considered I could, and you also in the same manner. She listened to me very quietly, and, when I had concluded, asked me if I had any idea where you had gone to? I answered that I had none. Then, as