four hours pass by without coming to see her since she had had the
fever. Now that he was absent, it seemed as though some cause of
irritation was removed from Will, who was much more gentle and
tractable than he had been for many weeks. Susan thought that she
observed him making efforts at her bidding, and there was something
piteous in the way in which he crept up to her, and looked wistfully
in her face, as if asking her to restore him the faculties that he
felt to be wanting.

"I never will let thee go, lad. Never! There's no knowing where
they would take thee to, or what they would do with thee. As it says
in the Bible, 'Nought but death shall part thee and me!'"

The country-side was full, in those days, of stories of the brutal
treatment offered to the insane; stories that were, in fact, but too
well founded, and the truth of one of which only would have been a
sufficient reason for the strong prejudice existing against all such
places. Each succeeding hour that Susan passed, alone, or with the
poor affectionate lad for her sole companion, served to deepen her
solemn resolution never to part with him. So, when Michael came, he
was annoyed and surprised by the calm way in which she spoke, as if
following Dr. Preston's advice was utterly and entirely out of the
question. He had expected nothing less than a consent, reluctant it
might be, but still a consent; and he was extremely irritated. He
could have repressed his anger, but he chose rather to give way to
it; thinking that he could thus best work upon Susan's affection, so
as to gain his point. But, somehow, he over-reached himself; and now
he was astonished in his turn at the passion of indignation that she
burst into.