In spite of rouge and loosely folded lace and flowing
draperies, she presented a deplorable spectacle. The bodily part of her
looked like a dead woman, painted and revived--while the moral part, in
the strongest contrast, was just as lively as ever.
"So glad to see you again, Father Benwell, and so much obliged by your
kind inquiries. I am quite well, though the doctor won't admit it. Isn't
it funny to see me being wheeled about, like a child in a perambulator?
Returning to first principles, I call it. You see it's a law of my
nature that I must go about. The doctor won't let me go about outside
the house, so I go about inside the house. Matilda is the nurse, and I
am the baby who will learn to walk some of these days. Are you tired,
Matilda? No? Then give me another turn, there's a good creature.
Movement, perpetual movement, is a law of Nature. Oh, dear no, doctor;
I didn't make that discovery for myself. Some eminent scientific person
mentioned it in a lecture. The ugliest man I ever saw. Now back again,
Matilda. Let me introduce you to my friends, Father Benwell.
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