"Won't you
open her letter?" said Mrs. Robarts.
"Yes, immediately; but, Fanny, I must speak to you about Mrs. Crawley
first. I must go back there this evening, and stay there; I have
promised to do so, and shall certainly keep my promise. I have
promised also that the children shall be taken away, and we must
arrange about that. It is dreadful, the state she is in. There is no
one to see to her but Mr. Crawley, and the children are altogether
left to themselves."
"Do you mean that you are going back to stay?"
"Yes, certainly; I have made a distinct promise that I would do
so. And about the children; could not you manage for the children,
Fanny--not perhaps in the house; at least not at first, perhaps?"
And yet during all the time that she was thus speaking and pleading
for the Crawleys, she was endeavouring to imagine what might be the
contents of that letter which she held between her fingers.
"And is she so very ill?" asked Mrs. Robarts.
"I cannot say how ill she may be, except this, that she certainly has
typhus fever. They have had some doctor or doctor's assistant from
Silverbridge; but it seems to me that they are greatly in want of
better advice."
"But, Lucy, will you not read your letter? It is astonishing to me
that you should be so indifferent about it.
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