Explore "Tom and Maggie Tulliver" by George Eliot on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Poor Tom bore his severe pain like a hero, but there was a terrible dread weighing on his mind -- so terrible that he dared not ask the question which might bring the fatal "yes" -- he dared not ask the surgeon or Mr. Stelling, "Shall I be lame, sir?"
It had not occurred to either of these gentlemen to set the lad's mind at rest with hopeful words. But Philip watched the surgeon out of the house, and waylaid Mr. Stelling to ask the very question that Tom had not dared to ask for himself.