So early and so completely had she
obtained the little sovereignty she had assumed, that when the rightful
queen came there was no room for her. The rector's wife was only known
as a pretty and pleasant-spoken young lady, who left all the parish
affairs in Mrs. Bolton's hands.
It is not to be wondered at, then, that no one guessed at David
Chantrey's difficulty, though everybody knew the exact amount of his
income. Neither he nor his wife hinted at it. Sophy Chantrey would have
freely given the world, had it been hers, to accompany her husband; but
there was no chance of that. A friend was going out on the same doleful
search for health; and the two were to take charge of each other. But
how to live at all while David was away? She urged that she could manage
very well on seventy or eighty pounds a year, if she and her boy went to
some cheap lodgings in a strange neighborhood, where nobody knew them;
but her husband would not listen to such a plan. The worry and fret of
his brain had grown almost to fever-height, when his aunt made a
proposal, which he accepted in impatient haste.
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