Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/174

164 said I. "You are really ill, and I have made you worse by all this talk."

"Oh, it is nothing: only a cold got by the rain."

"My doing, too."

"Never mind that—but tell me, did you mention this affair to my sister?"

"To confess the truth, I had not the courage to do so; but when you tell her, will you just say that I deeply regret it, and—"

"Oh, never fear! I shall say nothing against you, as long as you keep your good resolution of remaining aloof from her. She has not heard of my illness then, that you are aware of?"

"I think not."

"I'm glad of that, for I have been all this time tormenting myself with the fear that somebody would tell her I was dying, or desperately ill, and she would be either distressing herself on account of her inability to hear from me or do me any good, or perhaps committing the