Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/61

Rh "'Yes, but you wouldn't let me; and I was such a fool I couldn't live without you. But now I see what it is that keeps me back, and what's wanted to save me; and I'd compass sea and land to get it—only I'm afraid there's no chance.' And he sighed as if his heart would break.

"'What is it Lowborough?' said I, thinking he was fairly cracked at last.

"'A wife,' he answered; 'for I can't live alone, because my own mind distracts me, and I can't live with you, because you take the devil's part against me.'

"'Who—I?'

"'Yes—all of you do,—and you more than any of them, you know. But if I could get a wife, with fortune enough to pay off my debts and set me straight in the world—'

"'To be sure.' said I.

"And sweetness and goodness enough,' he continued, 'to make home tolerable, and to reconcile me to myself,—I think I should do, yet.