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Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889

"No Name"

She has already been disturbed, as
I understand, and she is seriously the worse for it. Even if she
gets better, even if she comes to herself again, it would still be a
dangerous experiment to move her too soon--the least excitement or alarm
would be fatal to her. You must make the best of this place as it is.
The landlady has my directions; and I will send a good nurse to help
her. There is nothing more to be done. So far as her life can be said
to be in any human hands, it is as much in your hands now as in
mine. Everything depends on the care that is taken of her, under your
direction, in this house." With those farewell words he rose and quitted
the room.
Left by himself, Kirke walked to the door of communication, and,
knocking at it softly, told the landlady he wished to speak with her.
He was far more composed, far more like his own resolute self, after his
interview with the doctor, than he had been before it. A man living in
the artificial social atmosphere which _this_ man had never breathed
would have felt painfully the worldly side of the situation--its novelty
and strangeness; the serious present difficulty in which it placed him;
the numberless misinterpretations in the future to which it might lead.


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