Wilkie Collins

“ She whispered to me when Helena was standing there—where you are standing. She freezes the life in me. Did she freeze the life in you? Did you hear her tempting me? Don’t speak of it, if you did. Oh, not a word! not a word!”
A man who has governed a prison may say with Macbeth, “I have supped full with horrors.” ”

“ No prudent man would have tried to persuade her, as I now did, that the idea of reconciliation offered the better hope of the two.
“Suppose I see Mr. Philip Dunboyne when I go back to London,” I began, “what shall I say to him?”
“Say I have forgiven him.”
“And suppose,” I went on, “that the blame really rests, where you all believe it to rest, with Helena. If that young man returns to you, truly ashamed of himself, truly penitent, will you——?”
She resolutely interrupted me: “No!”
“Oh, Eunice, you surely mean Yes?” ”

“ I had to look over the letters, in Eunice’s own interests; and I begged her to let me defer my visit to the farm until the next day. She consented, after making me promise to keep my appointment. It was of some importance to her, she told me, that I should make acquaintance with the farmer and his wife and children, and tell her how I liked them. Her plans for the future depended on what those good people might be willing to do. When she had recovered her health, it was impossible for her to go home again while Helena remained in the house. ”