'In whom else should I trust? All human friends are gone.'
'Not all, you have friends around you.'
'Have I? Thank you, sir? God bless you.'
'I will come again and read to you when you are able to bear it.'
Rowland said this and withdrew, without speaking again to Miss Gwynne, or even bowing as he left the room.
'He certainly reads most impressively,' thought Miss Gwynne; 'I could scarcely believe he was not English born and bred; but still he is quite a Goth in manners, and I am sure he thinks no one in the country so clever as himself.'
Rowland met Netta at the foot of the stairs.
'Netta, I really am ashamed to think that you can allow Miss Gwynne to wait upon that girl in your own house.'
'I'm sure, Rowland, Miss Gwynne needn't do it if she didn't choose. I don't want to catch the fever, and I never will run the risk by nursing such a girl as that.'
'Surely, Netta, you cannot be our mother's daughter, or you could not use such unchristian expressions.'