Translations
It was Brown who had first received the letter, in Hampstead; and it was Brown who had read it aloud to Fanny and her mother, explaining the contents as he went. At first she had no idea what it meant. Then she understood: the hand of heaven was opening. But what an affront, that the hand of heaven should come in through this big, balding, winking, sometimes indecent neighbor of theirs, who ordered in quantities of liquor and had gotten the Irish cook with child.
Of course Fanny and John had not married, of course everyone thought of Brown as the soul nearest him. It was Brown and not Severn who should have gone to Rome in the first place, but he had been delayed in Scotland. Now he talked of nothing but his lost chance.
She had never believed that John was dying. It was a
