trouble your head about her- put the thing out of your thoughts.'
'Yet it seems to me your life is hardly secure while she stays.'
'Never fear- I will take care of myself.'
'Is the danger you apprehended last night gone by now, sir?'
'I cannot vouch for that till Mason is out of England: nor even then. To live, for me, Jane, is to stand on a crater-crust which may crack and spue fire any day.'
'But Mr. Mason seems a man easily led. Your influence, sir, is evidently potent with him: he will never set you at defiance or wilfully injure you.'
'Oh no! Mason will not defy me; nor, knowing it, will he hurt me- but, unintentionally, he might in a moment, by one careless word, deprive me, if not of life, yet for ever of happiness.'
'Tell him to be cautious, sir: let him know what you fear, and show him how to avert the danger.'
He laughed sardonically, hastily took my hand, and as hastily threw it from him.
'If I could do that, simpleton, where would the danger be?
Annihilated in a moment. Ever since I have known Mason, I have only had to say to him "Do that," and the thing has been done. But I cannot give him orders in this case: I cannot say "Beware of harming me, Richard"; for it is imperative that I should keep him ignorant that harm to me is possible. Now you look puzzled; and I will puzzle you further. You are my little friend, are you not?'
'I like to serve you, sir, and to obey you in all that is right.'
'precisely: I see you do. I see genuine contentment in your gait and mien, your eye and face, when you are helping me and pleasing me- working for me, and with me, in, as you characteristically say, "all that is right": for if I bid you do what you thought wrong, there would be no light-footed running, no neat-handed alacrity, no lively glance and animated complexion. My friend would then turn to me, quiet and pale, and would say, "No, sir; that is impossible: I cannot do it, because it is wrong"; and would become immutable as a fixed star.
Well, you too have power
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