CHAPTER XX--A FLIGHT
Rosa no sooner came to herself than the whole of the late interview
was before her. It even seemed as if it had pursued her into her
insensibility, and she had not had a moment's unconsciousness of
it. What to do, she was at a frightened loss to know: the only
one clear thought in her mind was, that she must fly from this
terrible man.
But where could she take refuge, and how could she go? She had
never breathed her dread of him to any one but Helena. If she went
to Helena, and told her what had passed, that very act might bring
down the irreparable mischief that he threatened he had the power,
and that she knew he had the will, to do. The more fearful he
appeared to her excited memory and imagination, the more alarming
her responsibility appeared; seeing that a slight mistake on her
part, either in action or delay, might let his malevolence loose on
Helena's brother.
Rosa's mind throughout the last six months had been stormily
confused. A half-formed, wholly unexpressed suspicion tossed in
it, now heaving itself up, and now sinking into the deep; now
gaining palpability, and now losing it. Jasper's self-absorption
in his nephew when he was alive, and his unceasing pursuit of the
inquiry how he came by his death, if he were dead, were themes so
rife in the place, that no one appeared able to suspect the
possibility of foul play at his hands.
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