There were also private epistles, which resulted in Hannah's making several trips to New York; and at last in, the arrival of a box from Rose Cottage, marked, Mrs. Paul Dudley. In October Hannah herself was coming, to stay one or two months; and perhaps till Gertrude could go back with her in the spring. I wish truth allowed me to say that Mr. Dudley grew more tender and considerate of his wife, the more she needed his loving care. He had succeeded in gaining the confidence of the public as a business man, and had as much practice as he could well attend to. He had given up going into society as frequently as at first, but did not therefore devote more time to his family. He staid late at his office, coming home at any hour in the night, greatly to the disturbance of poor Gerty's rest. He saw that she was often pale and nervous, but attributed it to any thing else rather that his own neglect; or the disappointment which, let her strive against it as she might, was gradually chilling the fervor of her affection for her husband. At her request he had allowed her a sum for weekly expenses; but often grumbled at her foolish extravagance; and at his own folly in burdening himself with the trials of housekeeping. Occasionally there would be an angry flash in her eye, which reminded him of the bitter experience of the first months, when she so stoutly rebelled at being broken into the matrimonial harness, as to his boon companions, he facetiously called it; and sometimes she retorted in a bitter tone; but generally the trembling of her lip, a huskiness in her voice, or a suspicious moisture in her eye, was the only evidence of the pain his conduct gave her. To no one except her Saviour did she repeat these grievances. She would not allow her good Bridget even to sympathize with her about her husband's unkindness. "Don't! You mean kindly, I know;—but you hurt me," she would say, putting her hand upon her heart. "Perhaps," she said one day to herself when with a burst of tears she had run to her chamber after a cutting sarcasm, from Paul, "Perhaps, if he had continued kind and loving as at first, I might not have found a heavenly Friend;—one who understands the infirmities of his creatures; and will not try them more than they are able to bear." A week before Hannah was expected, came the sad intelligence that she had fallen down stairs and broken her ancle. This disappointment was greater than poor Gerty could endure with any degree of calmness. Paul brought home the letter, and when she held it out to him with a cry of dismay, he made fun of her grief. Her tears flowed fast now as she realized her desolate condition. She was too deeply anxious to notice his sneering voice, saying: "I wouldn't be such a cry baby. Why don't you show a little sense? There are other nurses beside Hannah." But finding she made no effort to control herself, he said in a loud voice, shaking her shoulder: