"That may be," answered her friend; "but I am certain also that if you had married him, you would have done him no good." Then Hester went on with her tale of trouble. Her brother Cornelius had been behaving very badly, she said, and had married a young woman without letting them know. Her father and mother were unaware of the fact as yet, and she dreaded having to communicate it to them. He had been very ill with the small-pox, and she must take him home; but what to do with his wife until she had broken the matter to them, she did not know. She knew her father would be very angry, and until he should have got over it a little she dared not have her home: in a word she was at her wits' end. "One question, excuse me if I ask," said Miss Dasomma: "_are_ they married?" "I am not sure; but I am sure she believes they are." Then she told her what she knew of Amy. Miss Dasomma fell a thinking. "Could I see her?" she said at length. "Surely; any time," replied Hester, "now that Corney is so much better." Miss Dasomma called, and was so charmed with Amy that she proposed to Hester she should stay with her. This was just what Hester wished but had not dared to propose. Now came the painful necessity not only of breaking to the young wife that she must be parted from her husband for a while, but--which was much worse--of therein revealing that he had deceived her. Had Cornelius not been ill and helpless, and characterless, he would probably have refused to go home; but he did not venture a word of opposition to Hester's determination. He knew she had not told Amy anything, but saw that, if he refused, she might judge it necessary to tell her all. And notwithstanding his idiotic pretence of superiority, he had a kind of thorough confidence in Hester. In his sickness something of the old childish feeling about her as a refuge from evil had returned upon him, and he was now nearly ready to do and allow whatever she pleased, trusting to her to get him out of the scrape he was in: she could do more than any one else, he was sure! "But now tell me, on your word of honour," she said to him that same night, happening to find herself alone with him, "are you really and truly married to Amy?" She was delighted to see him blaze up in anger. "Hester, you insult us both!" he said. "No, Cornelius," returned Hester, "I have a right to distrust you--but I distrust only you. Whatever may be amiss in the affair, I am certain you alone are to blame--not Amy." Thereupon Cornelius swore a solemn oath that Amy was as much his lawful wife as he knew how to make her. "Then what is to be done with her when you go home? You cannot expect she will be welcomed. I have not dared tell them of your marriage--only of your illness. The other must be by word of mouth." "I don't know what's to be done with her. 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--"