Within the Maze: A Novel, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wood, Henry, Mrs.
General
Within the Maze: A Novel, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
English fiction -- 19th century
It was a happy thing for Karl that he had plenty of business on his
hands just now. It saved him in a degree from thought. Besides his own
matters, there were many things to see to for his mother. The house in
Northamptonshire was given up, its furniture sold, its household,
except Hewitt, discharged. Karl was on the spot and saw to it all.
Whilst there, he had rather a struggle with himself. His natural
kindliness of feeling prompted him to call and see Miss Turner:
personally he shrunk from it, for he could not forget that it was
through her all the misery had happened. He did violence to his
inclination, and called. The young lady seemed to be in very depressed
spirits, and said but little. The event seemed to have tried her much,
and she was pale and thin. During the interval that had elapsed since
the trial, her uncle, to whom she was much attached, had died. She
told Karl that her aunt, Mrs. Turner, intended to remove at once to
her native place, a remote district of Cumberland: Rose supposed she
should have to remove with her. Mr. Turner had left a very fair amount
of property. His wife was to receive the interest of it for her life;
at her death the whole of it would come to Rose. As Karl shook hands
with her on leaving, and wished her well, something he said was taken
by her as alluding to the unhappy tragedy, though he had intended
nothing of the sort. It had a strange effect upon her. She rose from
her seat, her hands trembling; her face became burning red, then
changed to a ghastly whiteness. "Don't speak of it, Captain
Andinnian," she exclaimed in a voice of horror; "don't hint at it,
unless you would see me go mad. There are times when I think that
madness will be my ending." Again wishing her well; he took his
departure. It was rather unlikely, he thought, that their paths would
cross each other again in life.
Hewitt was sent to Foxwood. It would probably be made the future home
of Mrs. Andinnian and her younger son; but at present they had not
gone there. For some little time, while Karl was busy in London,
Northamptonshire, or elsewhere, he had lost sight of his mother. She
quitted the temporary home she occupied, and, so to say, disappeared.
While he was wondering what this meant, and where she could be; he
received a letter from her dated Weymouth. She told him she had taken
up her abode there for the present, and she charged him not to
disclose this to any one, or to let her address be known. Just for a
moment, Karl was puzzled to imagine what her motive could be in going
to a place that she knew nothing of. All at once the truth flashed
upon him--she would be as near as possible to that cruel prison that
contained her ill-fated son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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