I should not have
intruded on you had not your mother requested me to come up and try to
raise your spirits--a pleasure which I would gladly enjoy if I could."
"I am much obliged to you, Mr. Woodward," she replied; "I hope a short
time will remove this unusual depression, and I must only have a little
patience."
"Just so, Miss Goodwin; a little time, as you say, will restore you to
yourself."
Now all this was very courteous and kind of Mr. Woodward, and might have
raised her spirits were it not for the eye. From the moment he entered
the apartment that dreaded instrument of his power was fixed upon her
with a look so concentrated, piercing, and intense, that it gave a
character of abstraction to all he said. In other words, she felt as
if his language proceeded out of his lips unconsciously, and that some
mysterious purport of his heart emanated from his eye. It appeared to
her that he was thinking of something secret connected with herself, to
which his words bore no reference whatsoever. She neither knew what to
do nor what to say under this terrible and permeating gaze; it was in
vain she turned away her eyes; she knew--she felt--that his was upon
her--that it was drinking up her strength--that, in fact, the evil
influence was; mingling with and debilitating her frame, and operating
upon all her faculties.
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