Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/218

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
208
THE TENANT

proportion as he recovered from the state of exhaustion and stupefaction—his ill-nature appeared to revive.

"Oh, this sweet revenge!" cried he, when I had been doing all I could to make him comfortable and to remedy the carelessness of his nurse. "And you can enjoy it with such a quiet conscience too, because it's all in the way of duty."

"It is well for me that I am doing my duty," said I, with a bitterness I could not repress, "for it is the only comfort I have; and the satisfaction of my own conscience, it seems, is the only reward I need look for!"

He looked rather surprised at the earnestness of my manner.

"What reward did you look for?" he asked.

"You will think me a liar if I tell you—but I did hope to benefit you: as well to better your mind, as to alleviate your present sufferings; but it appears I am to do neither—your