You all came out
for my sake, and I am bent upon returning for yours. In time I shall be
as glad that I returned as you are that you came out, though I am not
glad now. I shall be a standing lesson to the people of Upton."
"But I do not wish my wife to be a lesson," he said fondly. Yet he could
not urge her to alter her decision. The old home and the old church,
which he had diligently tried to forget, thrust themselves as freshly
and imperiously upon his memory as if he had left them but yesterday. He
had not known how great his sacrifice had been when he had given them up
in his misery. Ann Holland and his boy shared his delight, and before
they sailed for home Sophy herself found that she could take very real
pleasure in their new prospects.
Mrs. Bolton did not live to welcome them back to Upton. The last few
years had been years of vexation and loneliness to her, and there had
been no one to care for her and to help her to bear her troubles. She
had been ailing for some time, and the trying changes of the spring
hastened her death before her favorite nephew could reach England.
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