"But, my dear," said Miss Dasomma, "Hester and I have been friends for many years, and we may well have things to say to each other we should not care that even one we loved so much as you should hear?--A lady must not be inquisitive, you know." "I know that, and I never did pry into other people's affairs. Tell me it was nothing about my husband, and I shall be quite content." "But think a moment, Amy!" returned Miss Dasomma, who began to find herself in a difficulty; "there might be things between his family and him, who have known him longer than you, which they were not quite prepared to tell you all about before knowing you better. Some people in the way they treated you would have been very different from that angel sister of yours! There is nobody like her--that I know!" "I love her with my whole heart," replied Amy sobbing--"next to Cornelius. But even she must not come between him and me. If it is anything affecting him, his wife has a right to know about it--a greater right than any one else; and no one has a right to conceal it from her!" "Why do you think that?" asked Miss Dasomma, entirely agreeing with her that she had a right to know, but thinking also, in spite of logic, that one might have a right to conceal it notwithstanding. She was anxious to temporize, for she did not see how to answer her appeal. She could not tell her a story, and she did not feel at liberty to tell her the truth; and if she declined to answer her question, the poor child might imagine something dreadful. "Why, miss," answered Amy, "we can't be divided! I must do what I can--all I can for him, and I have a right to know what there is to be done for him." "But can you not trust his own father and mother?" said Miss Dasomma--and as she said it, her conscience accused her. "Yes, surely," replied Amy, "if they were loving him, and not angry with him. But I have seen even that angel Hester look very vexed with him sometimes, and that when he was ill too! and I know he will never stand that: he will run away as I did. I know what your own people can do to make you miserable! They say a woman must leave all for her husband, and that's true; but it is the other way in the Bible--I read it this morning! In the Bible it is--'a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife;' and after that who will say there ought to be anything between him and his parents she don't know about. It's _she_ that's got to look after the man given to her like that!" Miss Dasomma looked with admiration at the little creature--showing fight like a wren for her nest. How rapidly she was growing! how noble she was and free! She was indeed a treasure! The man she had married was little worthy of her, but if she rescued him, not from his parents, but from himself, she might perhaps have done as good a work as helping a noble-hearted man!