'Forgive me, Greville, forgive me,' she would say.
'Remember how forlorn a wretch I shall become, when thou too, like
the rest, shalt abandon and persecute me. Am I not thy wedded wife,
and as faithful as I am miserable! am I not the mother of thy child?
and yet I know not;--for I seek my poor infant, and they will not,
will not, give it to me--tell me,' she whispered with a ghastly smile,
'have they buried it in the raging sea with him whom I must not
name?'
"The decisive moment arrived; and Lady Greville's insanity was, in
the opinion of her physicians and attendants, confirmed for life.
She relapsed into that state of composed but decided aberration of
mind, in which she still remains. I soon observed that my presence
alone appeared to retain the power of irritating her feelings; and
she seemed to shrink instinctively from every person with whom she
had been in habits of intercourse previous to her misfortune. I
therefore consigned this helpless sufferer to the charge of the nurse
of my own infancy, Alice Wishart; whom, from her constant residence
at the Cross, Lady Greville had never seen.
"This trustworthy woman, and her husband, who was also an hereditary
retainer of our house, willingly devoted themselves to the melancholy
service required; and hateful as Silsea had now become to my
feelings, I broke up in part my establishment and became a restless
and unhappy wanderer, seeking, in vain, oblivion of the past, or hope
for the future.
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