Oldershaw, between you and me. When I went upstairs into that
sickroom, I marched blindfold into the clutches of a jealous woman. If
Mrs. Milroy _can_ turn me out of the house, Mrs. Milroy _will_; and,
morning and night, she has nothing else to do in that bed prison of hers
but to find out the way.

"In this awkward position, my own cautious conduct is admirably seconded
by the dear old major's perfect insensibility. His wife's jealousy
of him is as monstrous a delusion as any that could be found in
a mad-house; it is the growth of her own vile temper, under the
aggravation of an incurable illness. The poor man hasn't a thought
beyond his mechanical pursuits; and I don't believe he knows at this
moment whether I am a handsome woman or not. With this chance to
help me, I may hope to set the nurse's intrusions and the mistress's
contrivances at defiance--for a time, at any rate. But you know what a
jealous woman is, and I think I know what Mrs. Milroy is; and I own
I shall breathe more freely on the day when young Armadale opens his
foolish lips to some purpose, and sets the major advertising for a new
governess.

"Armadale's name reminds me of Armadale's friend. There is more danger
threatening in that quarter; and, what is worse, I don't feel half as
well armed beforehand against Mr. Midwinter as I do against Mrs. Milroy.

"Everything about this man is more or less mysterious, which I don't
like, to begin with. How does he come to be in the confidence of the
Somersetshire clergyman? How much has that clergyman told him? How is it
that he was so firmly persuaded, when he spoke to me in the park, that
I was not the Miss Gwilt of whom his friend was in search? I haven't the
ghost of an answer to give to any of those three questions. I can't
even discover who he is, or how he and young Armadale first became
acquainted. I hate him. No, I don't; I only want to find out about him.
He is very young, little and lean, and active and dark, with bright
black eyes which say to me plainly, 'We belong to a man with brains in
his head and a will of his own; a man who hasn't always been hanging
about a country house, in attendance on a fool.' Yes; I am positively
certain Mr. Midwinter has done something or suffered something in his
past life, young as he is; and I would give I don't know what to get at
it. Don't resent my taking up so much space in my writing about him. He
has influence enough over young Armadale to be a very awkward