I am more glad you are getting better than I can say. I
have prayed for it--and I am sorry for what I have done; I am
innocent of the worst, and--I hope you will not think me so very
bad, James!'
'Oh no. On the contrary, I shall think you very good--as a nurse,'
he answered, the caustic severity of his tone being apparent through
its weakness.
Laura let fall two or three silent tears, and said no more that day.
Somehow or other Signor Smithozzi seemed to be making good his
escape. It transpired that he had not taken a passage in either of
the suspected coaches, though he had certainly got out of the
county; altogether, the chance of finding him was problematical.
Not only did Captain Northbrook survive his injuries, but it soon
appeared that in the course of a few weeks he would find himself
little if any the worse for the catastrophe. It could also be seen
that Laura, while secretly hoping for her husband's forgiveness for
a piece of folly of which she saw the enormity more clearly every
day, was in great doubt as to what her future relations with him
would be. Moreover, to add to the complication, whilst she, as a
runaway wife, was unforgiven by her husband, she and her husband, as
a runaway couple, were unforgiven by her father, who had never once
communicated with either of them since his departure from the inn.
But her immediate anxiety was to win the pardon of her husband, who
possibly might be bearing in mind, as he lay upon his couch, the
familiar words of Brabantio, 'She has deceived her father, and may
thee.
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