_III.--I Am Made Happy_


I sometimes thought that Mr. Woodcourt loved me, and that, if he had
been richer, he would perhaps have told me that he loved me before he
went away. I had thought sometimes that if he had done so I should have
been glad. As it was, he went to the East Indies, and later we read in
the papers of a great shipwreck, that Allan Woodcourt had worked like a
hero to save the drowning, and succour the survivors.

I had been ill when my dear guardian asked me one day if I would care to
read something he had written, and I said "Yes." There was estrangement
at that time between Richard and Mr. Jarndyce, for the unhappy boy had
taken it into his head that the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce would yet
be settled, and would bring him fortune, and this kept him from devoting
himself seriously to any profession. Of course, he and my darling Ada
had fallen in love, and my guardian insisting on their waiting till
Richard was earning some income before any engagement could be
recognised, increased the estrangement. I knew, to my distress, that
Richard suspected my guardian of having a conflicting claim in the
horrible lawsuit and this made him think unjustly of Mr. Jarndyce.

I read the letter. It was so impressive in its love for me, and in the
unselfish caution it gave me, that my eyes were too often blinded to
read much at a time. But I read it through three times before I laid it
down. It asked me would I be the mistress of Bleak House. It was not a
love-letter, though it expressed so much love, but was written just as
he would at any time have spoken to me.