and indeed I was generally more humanised in my de-
meanour to her than to any one else, Mr. Lawrence excepted.
Rose and Fergus usually shunned my presence; and it was
well they did, for I was not fit company for them, nor they
for me, under the present circumstances.

Mrs. Huntingdon did not leave Wildfell Hall till above
two months after our farewell interview. During that time
she never appeared at church, and I never went near the
house: I only knew she was still there by her brother's brief
answers to my many and varied inquiries respecting her. I
was a very constant and attentive visitor to him throughout
the whole period of his illness and convalescence; not only
from the interest I took in his recovery, and my desire to
cheer him up and make the utmost possible amends for my
former 'brutality,' but from my growing attachment to him-
self, and the increasing pleasure I found in his society-
partly from his increased cordiality to me, but chiefly on
amount of his close connection, both in blood and in affection,
with my adored Helen. I loved him for it better than I liked
to express: and I took a secret delight in pressing those
slender white fingers, so marvellously like her own, consider-
ing he was not a woman, and in watching the passing changes
in his fair, pale features, and observing the intonations of his
voice, detecting resemblances which I wondered had never
struck me before. He provoked me at times, indeed, by his
evident reluctance to talk to me about his sister, though I did
not question the friendliness of his motives in wishing to
discourage my remembrance of her.

His recovery was not quite so rapid as he had expected it
to be; he was not able to mount his pony till a fortnight
after the date of our reconciliation; and the first use he made
of his returning strength was to ride over by night to Wild-
fell Hall, to see his sister. It was a hazardous enterprise
both for him and for her, but he thought it necessary to
consult with her on the subject of her projected departure, if
not to calm her apprehensions respecting his health, and the
worst result was a slight relapse of his illness, for no one

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