Chapter 3
What was to be done next? was the question that I asked myself.
As for Lucy, she would fain have submitted to the doom that lay
upon her. Her gentleness and piety, under the pressure of so
horrible a life, seemed over-passive to me. She never complained.
Mrs. Clarke complained more than ever. As for me, I was more in
love with the real Lucy than ever; but I shrunk from the false
similitude with an intensity proportioned to my love. I found out
by instinct that Mrs. Clarke had occasional temptations to leave
Lucy. The good lady's nerves were shaken, and, from what she said,
I could almost have concluded that the object of the Double was to
drive away from Lucy this last and almost earliest friend. At
times, I could scarcely bear to own it, but I myself felt inclined
t
