Ernest has often thought about this since. He tried to get the facts out
of Susan, who he was sure would know, but Charlotte had been beforehand
with him. "No, Master Ernest," said Susan, when he began to question
her, "your ma has sent a message to me by Miss Charlotte as I am not to
say nothing at all about it, and I never will." Of course no further
questioning was possible. It had more than once occurred to Ernest that
Charlotte did not in reality believe more than he did himself, and this
incident went far to strengthen his surmises, but he wavered when he
remembered how she had misdirected the letter asking for the prayers of
the congregation. "I suppose," he said to himself gloomily, "she does
believe in it after all."
Then Christina returned to the subject of her own want of
spiritual-mindedness, she even harped upon the old grievance of her
having eaten black puddings--true, she had given them up years ago, but
for how many years had she not persevered in eating them after she had
had misgivings about their having been forbidden! Then there was
something that weighed on her mind that had taken place before her
marriage, and she should like--
Ernest interrupted: "My dear mother," he said, "you are ill and your mind
is unstrung; others can now judge better about you than you can; I assure
you that to me you seem to have been the most devotedly unselfish wife
and mother that ever lived.
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