How the weeks and the months had passed with me is soon told. Ill when I
left River Hall, shortly after my return home I fell sick unto death,
and lay like one who had already entered the Valley of the Shadow.
I was too weak to move; I was too faint to think; and when at length I
was brought slowly back to the recollection of life and its cares, of
all I had experienced and suffered in the Uninhabited House, the time
spent in it seemed to me like the memory of some frightful dream.
I had lost my health there, and my love too. Helena was now further
removed from me than ever. She was a great heiress. Mr. Harringford had
left her all his money absolutely, and already Miss Blake was
considering which of the suitors, who now came rushing to woo, it would
be best for her niece to wed.
As for me, Taylor repeated, by way of a good joke, that her aunt
referred to me as a "decent sort of young man" who "seemed to be but
weakly," and, ignoring the fact of ever having stated "she would not
mind giving fifty pounds," remarked to Mr. Craven, that, if I was in
poor circumstances, he might pay me five or ten sovereigns, and charge
the amount to her account.
Of all this Mr. Craven said nothing to me. He only came perpetually to
my sick-bed, and told my mother that whenever I was able to leave town I
must get away, drawing upon him for whatever sums I might require.
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