It is as
if one had a dual personality, the one I being entirely unconscious
of the other. I had thought nothing; I had said such an
extraordinary thing. I don't know that analysis of my own
psychology matters at all to this story. I should say that it didn't or,
at any rate, that I had given enough of it. But that odd remark of
mine had a strong influence upon what came after. I mean, that
Leonora would probably never have spoken to me at all about
Florence's relations with Edward if I hadn't said, two hours after
my wife's death:
"Now I can marry the girl."
She had, then, taken it for granted that I had been suffering all that
she had been suffering, or, at least, that I had permitted all that
she had permitted. So that, a month ago, about a week after the
funeral of poor Edward, she could say to me in the most natural
way in the world--I had been talking about the duration of my stay
at Branshaw--she said with her clear, reflective intonation:
"Oh, stop here for ever and ever if you can." And then she added,
"You couldn't be more of a brother to me, or more of a counsellor,
or more of a support. You are all the consolation I have in the
world.
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