or what I
had acknowledged. My uneasiness grew so evident that both my
uncle and Edward were suddenly struck with the same fear. It
occurred to them both, at the same time, that I was ill from
the terror I had undergone, and the exertion I had made; both
led me towards the house with anxious solicitude, and with the
tenderest care. A change had come over Edward's manner; he too
looked dreadfully ill, and the nervous tension of his usually
calm features was painful to see. They carried me up to my
room, and when I was laid on the bed, Mrs. Middleton's dear
voice and tender kisses occasioned me a burst of crying, which
relieved the intolerable oppression under which I was
labouring. My uncle took Edward almost by force out of the
room, and Mrs. Middleton followed them, after placing my maid
by my bed-side. She returned in a few moments, and by the
direction of the doctor, who had been sent for, she gave me a
nervous draught, and kept me as quiet as possible. I grew
calmer, but my tears continued to flow in silence. I did not
see my way before me; it seemed to me that suddenly,
involuntarily, almost unconsciously, I had become pledged to
Edward, that our engagement might at any moment be proclaimed
to the world, and the dreadful results which I knew would
follow, stared me in the face; and yet how to retract--what to
say--what to do, was a difficulty which I saw no means of
surmounting, and every kind of congratulatory whisper of Mrs.
Middleton, which was meant to soothe and gratify me, threw me
into inexpressible agitation, as it showed me that Edward, my
uncle, and herself, considered me as much pledged to him, and
our marriage as much the natural result of the acknowledgment,
which in that hour of anguish and of terror had escaped from
me, as if the settlements had been signed and the wedding-day
named.

Towards evening I fancied that I saw on Mrs. Middleton's
countenance an expression of uneasiness, as she came into my
room; and, with trembling anxiety, I asked her how Edward was.

"He is not well; but nothing to make us uneasy," she added, as
she observed the look of terror in my face. "What you so
courageously did, dear child, and the subsequent searing of
the scar, which, as a measure of further precaution, was done,
have entirely secured him from any danger of that dreadful
kind; but the exertion, the agitation, and the operation
itself, which was very painful, have brought on some fever,
which it will requi