That is what has left me as you see me."
"Well, Alice, it is very odd and very strange, and it seems as if there
was some mystery in it. I will, however, talk to your father about it,
and we will hear what he shall say. In the meantime, raise your spirits,
and don't be so easily alarmed. You are naturally nervous and timid, and
this is merely a poor, cowardly conceit that has got into your head; but
your own good sense will soon show you the folly of yielding to a mere
fancy. Amuse yourself on the spinet, and play some brisk music that will
cheer your spirits; it is nothing but the spleen."
Woodward, in the meantime, having effected his object, and satisfied
himself of his power over Alice, pursued his way home in high spirits.
To his utter astonishment, however, he found the family in an uproar,
the cause of which we will explain. His mother, whose temper neither she
herself nor any other human being, unless her husband, when provoked
too far, could keep under anything like decent restraint, had got into a
passion, while he, Woodward, was making his visit; and while in a blaze
of resentment against the Goodwins she disclosed the secret of
his rejection by Alice, and dwelt with bitter indignation upon the
attachment she had avowed for Charles--a secret which Henry had most
dishonorably intrusted to her, but which, as the reader sees, she had
neither temper nor principle to keep.
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