England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- England -- Fiction
“Carry her into the house. Or, stay, fetch water,” said she; “she had
better be recovered here,” and Robson was accordingly despatched for a
glass of water, with which he soon returned. It was applied to her
lips, and partially sprinkled on her forehead.
After a time she began to recover; she opened her eyes, looked round,
and spoke--“Where is he?”
“Here! I am here, young lady,” replied Woodruff, as he looked her
earnestly in the face to fix her attention. “What of me?”
“My father!” exclaimed Fanny, as she again sunk into a state of
insensibility.
“Father!” repeated Woodruff--“my father! I her father! She my daughter!”
He strove to wrench his arms free to clasp her to his bosom, but again
he could not.
“Take her away, Robson,” said Mrs. Rowel. “What does all this mean? Take
her away!--take her away!”
And Fanny was carried back by the strong man to the room into which she
had at first been introduced; while James Woodruff remained standing
upon that spot, gazing on that ground where his child had laid, as
though the great world contained in it no other place which, even to
him, deserved for a moment to be looked upon.
CHAPTER X.
_Is so very necessary between the ninth and eleventh that it could not
possibly be dispensed with._
When Fanny was sufficiently recovered, Mrs. Rowel questioned her very
particularly upon the circumstances that had occurred, and exhibited a
great deal of laudable curiosity to be fully enlightened touching the
mystery that had been enacted before her. Fanny would fain have kept
it to herself; but too much had already passed in the presence of the
doctor's wife to render such a line of conduct altogether practicable.
Nevertheless, it was not until a faithful promise of secrecy had been
made on the part of Mrs. Rowel, that Fanny was induced to communicate
to her so much of her story as was needful to render something like
an intelligible whole. In this account she omitted any mention of
the source from whence the information respecting her father had been
obtained; and also forbore making the most distant allusion to the
death of her late master, or to the part which she secretly believed the
doctor had taken in that event.
The lady listened to her narrative with great astonishment, and when
it was concluded, seized both her hands in an affectionate manner, and
exclaimed, “Then, my dear, you are my niece:--the doctor is your own
uncle, for your mother and he were brother and sister!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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