e. She took the new circumstances in with
a single cast up of her wary eyelids; and her, and her skill in surgery
and art in medicine, I praised to lull her fears, which procured me the
denomination of old friend, as well as handsome gentleman: she went so
far as to add, in a fit of natural warmth, nice fellow; and it is the
truth, that this term effected wonders in flattering me: it seemed to
reveal to me how simple it was for Harry Richmond, one whom gipsies
could think a nice fellow, to be the lord of Janet's affections--to be
her husband. My heart throbbed; yet she was within range of a mile and
a half, and I did not wish to be taken to her. I did wish to smell the
piney air about the lake-palace; but the thought of Ottilia caused me no
quick pulsations.

My father remained an hour. He could not perceive the drift of my
objection to go either to Bulsted or to Riversley, and desire that my
misadventure should be unknown at those places. However, he obeyed
me, as I could always trust him to do scrupulously, and told a tale at
Bulsted. In the afternoon he returned in a carriage to convey me to the
seaside. When I was raised I fainted, and saw the last of the camp on
Durstan much as I had come to it first. Sickness and swimming of the
head continued for several days. I was persecuted with the sensation
of the carriage journey, and an iteration of my father's that ran: 'My
son's inanimate body in my arms,' or 'Clasping the lifeless body of my
sole son, Harry Richmond,' and other variations. I said nothing about
it. He told me aghast that I had spat blood. A battery of eight fists,
having it in the end all its own way, leaves a deeper indentation on
its target than a pistol-shot that passes free of the vital chords. My
convalescence in Germany was a melody compared with this. I ought to
have stopped in the tent, according to the wise old mother's advice,
given sincerely, for prudence counselled her to strike her canvas and be
gone. There I should have lain, interested in the progress of a bee, the
course of a beetle or a cloud, a spider's business, and the shaking
of the gorse and the heather, until good health had grown out of
thoughtlessness. The very sight of my father was as a hive of humming
troubles.

His intense anxiety about me reflected in my mind the endless worry I
had concerning him. It was the intellect which condemned him when he
wore a joyful air, and the sensations when he waxed over-solicitous.
Whether