I was willing to profit by this interval to know more of Thetford than I already possessed.

I inquired why Wallace had so perversely neglected the advice of his uncle and cousin, and persisted to brave so many dangers when flight was so easy.
"I cannot justify my conduct," answered he.

"It was in the highest degree thoughtless and perverse.

I was confident and unconcerned as long as our neighbourhood was free from disease, and as long as I forbore any communication with the sick; yet I should have withdrawn to Malverton, merely to gratify my friends, if Thetford had not used the most powerful arguments to detain me.

He laboured to extenuate the danger.
"'Why not stay,' said he, 'as long as I and my family stay?
Do you think that we would linger here, if the danger were imminent?
As soon as it becomes so, we will fly.