Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/278

266 "How can you ask it, Helen?"

"I don't say I can clear myself altogether," said she, speaking low and fast, while her heart beat visibly and her bosom heaved with excitement,—"but would you be glad to discover I was better than you think me?"

"Anything, that could, in the least degree, tend to restore my former opinion of you, to excuse the regard I still feel for you, and alleviate the pangs of unutterable regret that accompany it, would be only too gladly—too eagerly received!"

Her cheeks burned and her whole frame trembled, now, with excess of agitation. She did not speak, but flew to her desk, and snatching thence what seemed a thick album or manuscript volume, hastily tore away a few leaves from the end, and thrust the rest into my hand, saying, "You needn't read it all; but take it home with you,"—and hurried from the room. But when I had left the house, and was proceeding down the walk, she opened the window and called me back. It was only to say,—