Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/261

Rh further enjoyment. For Hattersley, graceless ruffian as he is, I believe there is more reasonable ground of hope; and—far be it from me to blame poor Milicent for his delinquencies—but I do think that if she had the courage or the will to speak her mind about them, and maintain her point unflinchingly, there would be more chance of his reclamation, and he would be likely to treat her better, and love her more, in the end. I am partly led to think so by what he said to me himself, not many days ago—I purpose to give her a little advice on the subject some time; but still, I hesitate from the consciousness that her ideas and disposition are both against it, and if my counsels failed to do good, they would do harm by making her more unhappy.

It was one rainy day last week: most of the company were killing time in the billiard-room, but Milicent and I were with little Arthur and Helen in the library, and between our books, our children, and each other, we expected to