"I know that she was neglected, left alone. That for days together she never saw her husband. That his manner, on receiving the news of her death, was more stolid and indifferent than mine would have been on being told of the sudden and suffering death of a total stranger. I know that she hated, feared him. And she was impulsive, quick, and probably warm-hearted." "Probably, Missy? Well, I don't want to wound you--but--but her children did not seem very dear to her." "Mamma, when one is suffering as she was, naturally, to an undisciplined nature, life centers where the suffering is. You cannot think of anything else. You just cry out, and bend your mind upon getting through with your pain as best you may, unless you have learned the higher lesson, which of course I know she hadn't. She had not in any sense learned the uses of her sufferings; I don't deny that. But who heaped those sufferings upon her? Who failed to make her better, if she was not perfect, child as she was, compared with him? Think of the difference in their ages. Oh, it makes me bitter to think of it. No, nothing can excuse him, nothing." "It is hard to say that. Wait till we know both stories." "Those we never shall know. She can't tell us any more of hers, poor soul, and he never will, you may be sure. Or, if he did, I should not feel bound to believe him. I assure you, I am not impressed with him as you are." "He seems very tender towards his children." "Yes, tender, but weak and irresolute. Possibly a little remorseful; we don't know how long this will last. He is undoubtedly sorry he broke their poor mother's heart, as sorry as such a stout, stolid thing can be, and he doesn't want the children to be drowned by the servants, or taught to swear or steal, just now, at any rate. He is willing to second our efforts to save them. He will not oppose us, at any rate. You must acknowledge it wouldn't look well, if he did." "Now, Missy, you are uncharitable." "No, mamma; you are over-charitable; this plausible gentleman has so worked upon you. Really I--I hate him. I always have, and your taking him up so only increases my aversion." "Excuse me. My taking him up is imaginary." "Oh, no, mamma, believe me, you have taken his side, unconsciously to yourself. And, equally unconsciously, you have, from the very first, set yourself against her, and deplored my infatuation. I have always seen it." "I confess that some things you told me prejudiced me against her. I felt that her personal attraction must be great to make you overlook them." "You mean her telling me things against her husband, even as early as our first interview." "And her indifference to her children, Missy, and her great egotism."