You do
not imagine, because I trust in God, and do not fear what the small-pox
can do to me, I would therefore neglect any necessary preventive! That
would be to tempt God: means as well as results are his. They are a way
of giving us a share in his work."
"If I should have imagined such neglect possible, would not yesterday go
far to justify me?" said lord Gartley.
"You are ungenerous," returned Hester. "You know I was then taken
unprepared! The smallpox had but just appeared--at least I had not heard
of it before."
"Then you mean to give up society for the sake of nursing the poor?"
"Only upon occasion, when there should be a necessity--such as an
outbreak of infectious disease."
"And how, pray, should I account for your absence--not to mention the
impossibility of doing my part without you? I should have to be
continually telling stories; for if people came to know the fact, they
would avoid me too as if I were the pest itself!"
It was to Hester as if a wall rose suddenly across the path hitherto
stretching before her in long perspective. It became all but clear to
her that he and she had been going on without any real understanding of
each other's views in life.
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