And then he spent the
best part of a week, in correspondence and up at the British
consul's, in getting the fellow's wife to come back from London
and bring back his girl baby. She had bolted with a Swiss scullion.
If she had not come inside the week he would have gone to
London himself to fetch her. He was like that. Edward
Ashburnham was like that, and I thought it was only the duty of his
rank and station. Perhaps that was all that it was--but I pray God to
make me discharge mine as well. And, but for the poor girl, I
daresay that I should never have seen it, however much the feeling
might have been over me. She had for him such enthusiasm that,
although even now I do not understand the technicalities of
English life, I can gather enough. She was with them during the
whole of our last stay at Nauheim.
Nancy Rufford was her name; she was Leonora's only friend's only
child, and Leonora was her guardian, if that is the correct term.
She had lived with the Ashburnhams ever since she had been of
the age of thirteen, when her mother was said to have committed
suicide owing to the brutalities of her father. Yes, it is a cheerful
story. . . . Edward always called her "the girl", and it was very
pretty, the evident affection he had for her and she for him.
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