He looked a good deal more like
himself.
"I knew you would defend me, sir!" he said, with a respectful confidence
which could not but please my uncle.
"You did not want to go home--did you?" he asked with a smile.
"I should have thrown myself out of the carriage!" answered John; "--that
is, if they had got me into it. But, please, tell me, sir," he went on,
"how it is I find myself in your house? I have been puzzling over it all
the morning. I have no recollection of coming."
"You understand, I fancy," rejoined my uncle, "that one of the family has
a notion she can take better care of you than anybody else! Is not that
enough to account for it?"
"Hardly, sir. Belorba cannot have gone and rescued me from my mother!"
"How do you know that? Belorba is a terrible creature when she is roused.
But you have talked enough. Shut your eyes, and don't trouble yourself to
recollect. As you get stronger, it will all come back to you. Then you
will be able to tell us, instead of asking us to tell you."
He left us together. I quieted John by reading to him, and absolutely
declining to talk.
"You are a captive. The castle is enchanted: speak a single word," I
said, "and you will find yourself in the dungeon of your own room."
He looked at me an instant, closed his eyes, and in a few minutes was
fast asleep. He slept for two hours, and when he woke was quite himself.
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