, Lydgate was seated by her bedside, and she was talking
deliriously, thinking aloud, and recalling what had gone through her mind the
night before. She knew him, and called him by his name, but appeared to think it
right that she should explain everything to him; and again, and again, begged
him to explain everything to her husband.
    »Tell him I shall go to him soon: I am ready to promise. Only, thinking
about it was so dreadful - it has made me ill. Not very ill. I shall soon be
better. Go and tell him.«
    But the silence in her husband's ear was never more to be broken.
 

                                  Chapter XLIX

 A task too strong for wizard spells
 This squire had brought about;
 'Tis easy dropping stones in wells,
 But who shall get them out?
 
»I wish to God we could hinder Dorothea from knowing this,« said Sir James
Chettam, with the little frown on his brow, and an expression of intense disgust
about his mouth.
    He was standing on the hearth-rug in the library at Lowick Grange, and
speaking to Mr. Brooke. It was the day after Mr. Casaubon had been buried, and
Dorothea was not yet able to leave her room.
    »That would be difficult, you know, Chettam, as she is an executrix, and she
likes to go into these things - property, land, that kind of thing. She has her
notions, you know,« said Mr. Brooke, sticking his eye-glasses on nervously, and
exploring the edges of a folded paper which he held in his hand; »and she would
like to act - depend upon it, as an executrix Dorothea would want to act. And
she was twenty-one last December, you know. I can hinder nothing.«
    Sir James looked at the carpet for a minute in silence, and then lifting his
eyes suddenly fixed them on Mr. Brooke, saying, »I will tell you what we can do.
Until Dorothea is well, all business must be kept from her, and as soon as she
is able to be moved she must come to us. Being with Celia and the baby will be
the best thing in the world for her, and will pass away the time. And meanwhile
you must get rid of Ladislaw: you must send him out of the country.« Here Sir
James's look of disgust returned in all its intensity.
    Mr. Brooke put his hands behind him, walked to the window and straightened
his back with a little shake before
