Pagina 644 di 896

This new life of the Doctor's was an anxious life, no doubt;

still, the sagacious Mr. Lorry saw that there was a new

sustaining pride in it. Nothing unbecoming tinged the pride; it

was a natural and worthy one; but he observed it as a curiosity.

The Doctor knew, that up to that time, his imprisonment had been

associated in the minds of his daughter and his friend, with his

personal affliction, deprivation, and weakness. Now that this was

changed, and he knew himself to be invested through that old

trial with forces to which they both looked for Charles's

ultimate safety and deliverance, he became so far exalted by the

change, that he took the lead and direction, and required them as

the weak, to trust to him as the strong. The preceding relative

positions of himself and Lucie were reversed, yet only as the

liveliest gratitude and affection could reverse them, for he

could have had no pride but in rendering some service to her who

had rendered so much to him.