Little Beverley kneeled down beside him, and
kissed his hand with a devotion that savoured of the canine. Yet it was
tender, and the sinking heart clung to it. "Oh, Frank!" he cried, "my
Julia believes me mad, or thinks me false, or something, and she will
marry another before I can get out to tell her all I have endured was for
loving her. What shall I do? God protect my reason! What will become of
me?"
He moaned, and young Frank sorrowed over him, till the harsh voice of
Rooke summoned him to some menial duty. This discharged, he came running
back; and sat on the bench beside his crushed benefactor without saying a
word. At last he delivered this sapient speech: "I see. You want to get
out of this place."
Alfred only sighed hopelessly.
"Then I must try and get you out," said Frank. Alfred shook his head.
"Just let me think," said Frank solemnly; and he sat silent looking like
a young owl: for thinking soon puzzled him, and elicited his intellectual
weakness, whereas in a groove of duties he could go as smoothly as half
the world, and but for his official, officious Protector, might just as
well have been Boots at the Swan, as Boots and Chambermaid at the Wolf.
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