At least, I know that when the worst was over, he
announced it by putting those wasted fingers into mine, and saying -
'Well, dear old fellow, I believe we shall jog on together, after
all.'
That attack, though the most severe of all, brought, either owing to
skilful treatment or to his own calm, the removal of the mischief,
and the beginning of real recovery. Previously he had given himself
no time, but had hurried on to exertions which retarded his cure, so
as very nearly to be fatal; but he was now perfectly submissive to
whatever physicians or nurses desired, and did not seem to find his
slow convalescence in the least tedious, since he was amongst us all
again.
It was nearly a month before he was disposed to recur to the subject
of his old solicitude again, and then he asked what Mr. Fordyce had
said or done. Just nothing at all; but on the next visit paid to
the sick-room, Parson Frank yielded to his earnest request to send
for any documents that might throw light on the subject, and after a
few days he brought us a packet of letters from his deed-box. They
were written from Hillside Rectory to the son in the army in
Flanders, chiefly by his mother, and were full of hot, angry
invective against our family, and pity for poor, foolish 'Madam,' or
'Cousin Winslow,' as she was generally termed, for having put
herself in their power.
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