Then he made me describe
Alfred to a nicety: and the description will go up to London this
morning, and all over Barkington, and the neighbourhood, and the county."
She stopped to kiss him, then went on again with her head down, and
neither spoke till they were nearly home: then Edward told her "the
superintendent felt quite sure that the villain was not dead; nor in
danger of it."
"Oh, bless him! bless him! for saying so."
"And that he will turn up in London before very long; not in this
neighbourhood. He says he must have known the writer of the letter, and
his taking his luggage with him shows he has gone off deliberately. My
poor little Ju, now do try and look at it as he does, and everybody else
does; try and see it as you would if you were a bystander."
She laid her soft hand on his shoulder as if to support herself floating
in her sea of doubt: "I do see I am a poor credulous girl; but how can my
Alfred be false to me? Am I to doubt the Bible? Am I to doubt the sun? Is
nothing true in heaven or earth? Oh, if I could only have died as I was
dressing for church--died while he seemed true! He _is_ true; the wicked
creature has cast some spell on him: he has gone in a moment of delirium;
he will regret what he has done, perhaps regrets it now.
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