THE SETTLERS OF LONG ARROW.
A Canadian Romance in Thirty-one Chapters.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
Among the many enjoyments felt after recovering from a long illness is the freedom from all the harassing anxieties and responsibilities of healthy and active life which is given to us for a while. They seem to have been swept away in the struggle between life and death, leaving behind a calm repose of mind, dream-like in its evanescent and placid beauty, yet childlike in its susceptibility of every external pleasure and every emotion of joy. But this cannot last for long. With restored strength and health come a train of cares and duties from which for that brief interval weakened nature had been absolved, and the short sabbath of rest is succeeded by all the toil and strife of the work-day world.
As soon as she was capable of exertion, Helen began to reflect on the mode of life which lay before her. She could not, of course, bear to be indebted to Keefe for shelter and support, a moment longer than was absolutely necessary, but how she was to earn an independent livelihood was a question not easily answered. The only relation of whom she knew anything, was a half-sister of her mother’s, living in Quebec, a widow, with a large jointure, and only one son, a handsome woman, lively, agreeable, and fond of society. She had always professed to feel a great deal of affection for Helen, but as she was vain, frivolous, and worldly, she was not a favourite with Mr. Lennox, and he did not encourage any more intimacy between her and his daughter than their relationship rendered necessary; nor was it possible for any real affection to exist between two characters so opposite as the selfish, artificial, conventional Mrs. Coryton and the simple Helen Lennox.
But there was another reason besides the want of esteem which, in itself, would have prevented Helen from applying to her aunt for assistance. Francis Coryton had made her to understand that he was very much in love with her, and that if she chose to give him sufficient encouragement he was ready to offer her his hand.
But she, far from having any inclination to do so, always treated him with so much indifference that when she left Quebec he determined to punish her by forgetting her as speedily as possible. That he would find it easy enough to conquer his fancy for her, Helen never doubted, but she was determined, at any rate, not to give him a chance of supposing she wished to renew their intimacy; so she resolved not to write to her aunt till she had decided on some plan of