Dear, dear! it might have been better for her if you'd
been poor folks, and she'd had to work hard for you both. She'd just
nothing to do, and nobody to turn to for comfort, poor thing. Mrs.
Bolton meant to be kind, and was kind in her way: but she fell into a
low fever, and the doctors all ordered her as much wine and support as
ever she could take."
"I never heard of it," said Mr. Chantrey; "they never told me."
"No; they were fearful of your coming back too soon," she went, on;
"and, thank God, you are looking quite yourself again, sir. All Upton
will be as glad as glad can be, and the old church'll be crammed again.
Mr. Warden's done all a man could do; but everybody said he wasn't you
and we longed for you back again, but not too soon--no, no, not too
soon."
"But my wife," he said; "has she been ill all the time?"
For a minute or two she could not find words to answer his question. She
knew that it could not be long before he learned the truth, if not from
her or his wife, then from Mrs. Bolton or his friend Mr. Warden. It was
too much the common talk of the neighborhood for him to escape hearing
of it, even if she could hope that Mrs.
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