Ethel Vivian's Experience Of The World

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV. ADVICE GIVEN AND RECEIVED. To find fault, some one may say, is easy, and in every man's power; but to point out the proper course to be pursued in the present circumstances, that is the proof of a wise counsellor. Demosthenes. Foe several succeeding days Edith neither saw nor heard anything more of Dr. Henry, and she was beginning to wonder whether he could already have put his half-formed resolve of leaving St. Helen's Lodge into execution, when he suddenly reappeared at dinner one afternoon, looking even graver and sterner than his wont, while an added brusquerie was noticeable in his manner, and his conversation, when he did condescend to open his lips, was painfully bitter and sarcastic in its tone. Edith watched his movements with very natural anxiety, and was grieved to observe that so far from improving as time passed on, he seemed to grow more and more restless and dissatisfied. He gave way to occasional fits of irritability, when he would, on the smallest provocation, make use of the harshest language, thereby greatly incensing Mrs. Greville, and causing even his indulgent father to regard him with grave surprise, largely mingled with apprehension lest he should be labouring under an attack of incipient insanity, brought on by too exclusive an application of the mental powers. But Edith knew better, for though he avoided her whenever he could do so without calling direct attention to the fact, and never addressed her if he could possibly help it, she was distressingly conscious that he held her, and her alone, responsible for the recklessness of his present conduct, and merely regarded himself in the light of a victim, whose happiness she had destroyed, and was, therefore, more or less accountable for the consequences. Still her r...