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As to Amabel, she addressed herself assiduously to the tasks enjoined by her father, and allowed her mind to dwell as little as possible on the past, but employed all her spare time in devotional exercises. It will be remembered that the grocer had reserved a communication with the street, by means of a shutter opening from a small room in the upper story.
"So I suppose," Sir Hugh went on, "you feel you can't forgive me." She hesitated, not quite understanding. "You mean for having married me when you loved her?" "Well, yes; but more for not having, long ago, in all these years, found out that you were the woman that any man with eyes to see, any man not blinded and fatuous, ought to have been in love with from the beginning." Amabel flushed.
It was a pity Miss Amabel Bracebridge could not have known that impetuous verdict. It would have brought her a surprised, spontaneous laugh: nothing could have convinced her it was not delicious foolery. She was tall and broad and heavy. When she stood in the doorway, she seemed to fill it.
The old woman instantly retired, and Amabel briefly related her hapless story to the enthusiast. "May I hope for forgiveness?" she inquired, as she concluded. "Assuredly," replied Solomon Eagle, "assuredly! You have not erred wilfully, but through ignorance, and therefore have committed no offence. You will be forgiven but woe to your deceiver, here and hereafter." "Oh' say not so," she cried.
'No; take care of yourself, don't trouble yourself for such as me! 'I must; he desired me, said Amabel. 'You will be happier, indeed, Philip, if you would only think what glory it is, and that he is all safe, and has won the victory, and will have no more of those hard, hard struggles, and bitter repentance. It has been such a night, that it seems wrong to be sorry.
"Are you going on a journey?" "I am about to take Amabel to Ashdown Park, in Berkshire, to-morrow morning," replied Leonard. "She is dangerously ill." "Of the plague?" asked Nizza, anxiously. "Of a yet worse disorder," replied Leonard, heaving a deep sigh "of a broken heart." "Alas! I pity her from my soul!" replied Nizza, in a tone of the deepest commiseration. "Does her mother go with her?"
You know he was attacked two days after Nizza Macascree was seized by the pestilence, and his brain has been running upon the poor girl ever since." "Alas!" exclaimed Rochester, "it is a sad end. I am wearied of this infected city, and shall be heartily glad to quit it. A few months in the country with Amabel will be enchanting."
As Amabel took leave of him for the night, he dismissed her with coldness; and though he bestowed his customary blessing upon her, the look that accompanied it was not such as it used to be. On the following day things continued in the same state.
"Ellen," she sobbed "Ellen, isn't there any way out of it? I can't see " Ellen freed herself from Abby with a curious imperative yet gentle motion, then she opened the door into the other room again. The loud clash of voices hushed, and every man faced towards her standing on the threshold, with her mother and Abby and little Amabel in the background.
Amabel, however, suffered no further misgiving to take possession of her. Deeming herself wedded to the earl, she put no constraint on her affection for him, and her happiness, though short-lived, was deep and full. A month passed away like a dream of delight. Nothing occurred in the slightest degree to mar her felicity. Rochester seemed only to live for her to think only of her.
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