In this way
I kept turning the subject over and over again in my mind, being
quite free, let me add, from looking at it in any other than a
practical point of view. I firmly believed, as a derider of all
ghost stories, that Alfred was deceiving himself in fancying that
he had seen the apparition of his uncle before the news of Mr.
Monkton's death reached England, and I was on this account,
therefore, uninfluenced by the slightest infection of my unhappy
friend's delusions when I at last fairly decided to accompany him
in his extraordinary search. Possibly my harum-scarum fondness
for excitement at that time biased me a little in forming my
resolution; but I must add, in common justice to myself, that I
also acted from motives of real sympathy for Monkton, and from a
sincere wish to allay, if I could, the anxiety of the poor girl
who was still so faithfully waiting and hoping for him far away
in England.
Certain arrangements preliminary to our departure, which I found
myself obliged to make after a second interview with Alfred,
betrayed the object of our journey to most of our Neapolitan
friends. The astonishment of everybody was of course unbounded,
and the nearly universal suspicion that I must be as mad in my
way as Monkton himself showed itself pretty plainly in my
presence.
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