How should _I_ know!"
answered Cornelius with a return of his old manner. "I thought you would
manage it all for me! This cursed illness--"
"Cornelius," said Hester, "this illness is the greatest kindness God
could show you."
"Well, we won't argue about that!--Sis, you must get me out of the
scrape!"
Hester's heart swelled with delight at the sound of the old loving
nursery-word. She turned to him and kissed him.
"I will do what I honestly can, Cornelius," she said.
"All right!" replied Corney. "What do you mean to do?"
"Not to take Amy down with us. She must wait till I have told."
"Then my wife is to be received only on sufferance!" he cried.
"You can hardly expect to be otherwise received yourself. You have put
your wife at no end of disadvantage by making her your wife without the
knowledge of your family. For yourself, when a man has taken money not
his own; when he has torn the hearts of father and mother with anguish
such as neither ever knew before--ah, Corney! if you had seen them as I
saw them, you would not now wonder that I tremble at the thought of your
meeting. If you have any love for poor Amy, you will not dream of
exposing her to the first outbreak of a shocked judgment.
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