Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/218

208 proportion as he recovered from the state of exhaustion and stupefaction—his ill-nature appeared to revive.

"Oh, this sweet revenge!" cried he, when I had been doing all I could to make him comfortable and to remedy the carelessness of his nurse. "And you can enjoy it with such a quiet conscience too, because it's all in the way of duty."

"It is well for me that I am doing my duty," said I, with a bitterness I could not repress, "for it is the only comfort I have; and the satisfaction of my own conscience, it seems, is the only reward I need look for!"

He looked rather surprised at the earnestness of my manner.

"What reward did you look for?" he asked.

"You will think me a liar if I tell you—but I did hope to benefit you: as well to better your mind, as to alleviate your present sufferings; but it appears I am to do neither—your