[A Dark Night’s Work by Elizabeth Gaskell]@TWC D-Link bookA Dark Night’s Work CHAPTER XIII 8/13
Ellinor broke on her meditations: "You have always been so kind and good to me,--go on being so--please, do! Leave me alone now, dear Mrs.Forbes, for I cannot bear talking about it, and help me to go to-morrow, and you do not know how I will pray to God to bless you!" Such an appeal was irresistible.
Mrs.Forbes kissed her very tenderly, and went to rejoin her daughters, who were clustered together in their mother's bedroom awaiting her coming. "Well, mamma, how is she? What does she say ?" "She is in a very excited state, poor thing! and has got so strong an impression that it is her duty to go back to England and do all she can for this wretched old man, that I am afraid we must not oppose her.
I am afraid that she really must go on Thursday." Although Mrs.Forbes secured the services of a travelling-maid, Dr. Livingstone insisted on accompanying Ellinor to England, and it would have required more energy than she possessed at this time to combat a resolution which both words and manner expressed as determined.
She would much rather have travelled alone with her maid; she did not feel the need of the services he offered; but she was utterly listless and broken down; all her interest was centred in the thought of Dixon and his approaching trial, and perplexity as to the mode in which she must do her duty. They embarked late that evening in the tardy _Santa Lucia_, and Ellinor immediately went to her berth.
She was not sea-sick; that might possibly have lessened her mental sufferings, which all night long tormented her. High-perched in an upper berth, she did not like disturbing the other occupants of the cabin till daylight appeared.
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