"There's no use talking, mother. I must go back now; he'll
wonder what we're talking about;" and she shut the door gently upon
her mother, still talking.
Her aunt Hannah came, and her aunt Sylvia, quaking with gentle fears.
She even had to listen to remonstrances from William Berry, honestly
grateful as he was for her care of his brother-in-law.
"I ain't quite sure that it's right for you to stay here, Charlotte,"
he said, looking away from her uncomfortably. "Rebecca says--'Hadn't
you better let me go for that woman again?'"
"I think I had better stay for the present," Charlotte replied.
"Of course--I know you do better for him--than anybody else could,
but--"
"How is Rebecca?" asked Charlotte.
"She is getting along pretty well, but it's slow. She's kind of
worried about you, you know. She's had considerable herself to bear.
It's hard to have folks--" William stopped short, his face burning.
"I am not afraid, if I know I am doing what is right," said
Charlotte. "You tell Rebecca I am coming in to see her as soon as I
can get a chance."
One contingency had never occurred to Barney in his helpless clinging
to Charlotte. He had never once dreamed that people might talk
disparagingly about her in consequence. He had, partly from his
isolated life, partly from natural bent, a curious innocence and
ignorance in his conception of human estimates of conduct.
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