And yet I
hardly know what I could have done, for nothing short of his finding
out what he had found out would have detached him from his wife, and
nothing could do him much good as long as he continued to live with
her.
After all I suppose I was right; I suppose things did turn out all
the better in the end for having been left to settle themselves-at any
rate whether they did or did not, the whole thing was in too great a
muddle for me to venture to tackle it so long as Ellen was upon the
scene; now, however, that she was removed, all my interest in my
godson revived, and I turned over many times in my mind what I had
better do with him.
It was now three and a half years since he had come up to London and
begun to live, so to speak, upon his own account. Of these years,
six months had been spent as a clergyman, six months in gaol, and
for two and a half years he had been acquiring twofold experience in
the ways of business and of marriage. He had failed, I may say, in
everything that he had undertaken, even as a prisoner; yet his defeats
had been always, as it seemed to me, something so like victories, that
I was satisfied of his being worth all the pains I could bestow upon
him; my only fear was lest I should meddle with him when it might be
better for him to be let alone.
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