Nay, the very raven, who had hopped
upon the table and with the air of some old necromancer appeared to be
profoundly studying a great folio volume that lay open on a desk, was
strictly in unison with the rest, and looked like the embodied spirit of
evil biding his time of mischief.
'I scarcely know,' said the widow, breaking silence, 'how to begin. You
will think my mind disordered.'
'The whole tenor of your quiet and reproachless life since you were last
here,' returned Mr Haredale, mildly, 'shall bear witness for you. Why do
you fear to awaken such a suspicion? You do not speak to strangers. You
have not to claim our interest or consideration for the first time. Be
more yourself. Take heart. Any advice or assistance that I can give you,
you know is yours of right, and freely yours.'
'What if I came, sir,' she rejoined, 'I who have but one other friend on
earth, to reject your aid from this moment, and to say that henceforth
I launch myself upon the world, alone and unassisted, to sink or swim as
Heaven may decree!'
'You would have, if you came to me for such a purpose,' said Mr Haredale
calmly, 'some reason to assign for conduct so extraordinary, which--if
one may entertain the possibility of anything so wild and strange--would
have its weight, of course.
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