Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/194

184 in two and all on fire with this consuming fever."

He leant his head on his hand, and sighed. I went to him and put my hand on his forehead. It was burning indeed.

"Then come with me into the drawing-room, Arthur; and don't take any more wine; you have taken several glasses since dinner, and eaten next to nothing all the day. How can that make you better?"

With some coaxing and persuasion, I got him to leave the table. When the baby was brought I tried to amuse him with that; but poor little Arthur was cutting his teeth, and his father could not bear his complaints; sentence of immediate banishment was passed upon him on the first indication of fretfulness; and, because, in the course of the evening, I went to share his exile for a little while, I was reproached, on my return, for preferring my child to my husband. I found the latter reclining on the sofa just as I had left him.

"Well!" exclaimed the injured man, in a