Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/271

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OF WILDFELL HALL.
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peaceful, happy life, which had been denied her so long, but which none could more truly be said to merit than herself,—adding a few words of kind remembrance to my little friend Arthur, with a hope that he had not fogotten me, and, perhaps, a few more in reference to by-gone times—to the delightful hours I had passed in her society, and my unfading recollection of them, which was the salt and solace of my life and a hope that her recent troubles had not entirely banished me from her mind.—If she did not answer this, of course I should write no more: if she did (as surely she would, in some fashion) my future proceedings should be regulated by her reply.

Ten weeks was long to wait in such a miserable state of uncertainty, but courage! it must be endured;—and meantime I would continue to see Lawrence now and then, though not so often as before, and I would still pursue my habitual enquiries after his sister—if he had lately heard from her, and how she was, but nothing more.