And yet I hardly know
what I could have done, for nothing short of his finding out what he had
found out would have detached him from his wife, and nothing could do him
much good as long as he continued to live with her.
After all I suppose I was right; I suppose things did turn out all the
better in the end for having been left to settle themselves--at any rate
whether they did or did not, the whole thing was in too great a muddle
for me to venture to tackle it so long as Ellen was upon the scene; now,
however, that she was removed, all my interest in my godson revived, and
I turned over many times in my mind, what I had better do with him.
It was now three and a half years since he had come up to London and
begun to live, so to speak, upon his own account. Of these years, six
months had been spent as a clergyman, six months in gaol, and for two and
a half years he had been acquiring twofold experience in the ways of
business and of marriage. He had failed, I may say, in everything that
he had undertaken, even as a prisoner; yet his defeats had been always,
as it seemed to me, something so like victories, that I was satisfied of
his being worth all the pains I could bestow upon him; my only fear was
lest I should meddle with him when it might be better for him to be let
alone.
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