He would hasten home from
Madeira, at the very worst season of the year, as it was now late in
October, The risk for him would be too great. There was no other home
open to Sophy; and it did not seem possible to make any change in the
conditions of that home. She must still be lonely and miserable, and
still be exposed to daily temptations. All he could do was so little,
that he did it without hope in the results.
If possible, Ann Holland was yet more troubled than he was. By and by it
became common town's-talk, and many a neighbor visited her with the
purpose of gossiping about poor Mrs, Chantrey. But they found her averse
to dwell upon the subject, as if gossip had suddenly grown distasteful
to her. Many an hour when she was waiting for her drunken brother to
come in from the Upton Arms, she pondered over what she could do to save
the wife of her beloved Mr. Chantrey. She knew better than Mr. Warden,
who had never been in close domestic contact with the sin, how terrible
and repulsive was the degradation of it; and she was heart-sick for
Sophy and her husband.
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