صفحة 366 من 483

"For that matter," replied the old woman, "if you mean about the

gentleman you murdered, I believe that it were better for you if

you were dead, for I fancy it will go hard with you! However,

that's none of my business; I am sent to nurse you and get you

well; I do my duty with a safe conscience; it were well if

everybody did the same."

I turned with loathing from the woman who could utter so

unfeeling a speech to a person just saved, on the very edge of

death; but I felt languid and unable to reflect on all that had

passed. The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I

sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never

presented itself to my mind with the force of reality.