able (with the help of Providence) to
make the bones grow again without much anger into their own embraces. It
is useless, however, for the body to pretend that it is doing wonders on
its own account, and rejoicing and holiday making, when the thing that
sits inside it and holds the whip, keeps down upon the slouch and is out
of sorts. And truly this was the case just now with the soul of Captain
Purvis. Deborah Pring did her very best, and was in and out of his
room every minute, and very often seemed to me to run him down when he
deserved it, not; on purpose that I might be started to run him up.
But nothing of that sort told at all according to her intention. I kept
myself very much to myself; feeling that my nature was too kind, and
asking at some little questions of behaviour, what sort of returns my
dear father had obtained for supposing other people as good as himself.

Moreover, it seemed an impossible thing that such a brave warrior, and a
rich man too--for his father, Sir Geoffrey, was in full possession now
of all the great property that belonged by right to us--that an officer
who should have been in command of this fine expedition, if he had his
dues, could be either the worse or the better of his wound, according to
his glimpses of a simple maid like me. It was useless for Deborah Pring,
or even Dr. Cutcliffe Lane himself, to go on as they did about love at
first sight, and the rising of the heart when, the ribs were broken, and
a quantity of other stuff too foolish to repeat. "I am neither a plaster
nor a poultice," I replied to myself, for I would not be too cross to
them--and beyond a little peep at him, every afternoon, I kept out of
the sight of Captain Purvis.

But these things made it very hard for me to be quite sure how to
conduct myself, without father and mother to help me, and with Mistress
Pring, who had always been such a landmark, becoming no more than a vane
for the wind to blow upon as it listed; or, perhaps, as she listed to
go with it. And remembering how she used to speak of the people who had
ousted us, I told her that I could not make it out. Things were in this
condition, and Captain Purvis, as it seemed to me, quite fit to go
and make war again upon some of His Majesty's subjects, when a thing,
altogether out of reason, or even of civilisation, happened; and people
who live in lawful parts will accuse me of caring too little for the
truth. But even before that came about, something