Lapham
before you came in. I told her that if I knew myself, I should
in your place consider the circumstances of a man in mine,
who had honourably endeavoured to discharge his obligations
to me, and had patiently borne my undeserved suspicions.
I should consider that man's family, I told Mrs. Lapham."
"Did you tell her that if I went in with you and those fellows,
I should be robbing the people who trusted them?"
"I don't see what you've got to do with the people
that sent them here. They are rich people, and could
bear it if it came to the worst. But there's
no likelihood, now, that it will come to the worst;
you can see yourself that the Road has changed its mind
about buying. And here am I without a cent in the world;
and my wife is an invalid. She needs comforts, she needs
little luxuries, and she hasn't even the necessaries;
and you want to sacrifice her to a mere idea! You don't know
in the first place that the Road will ever want to buy;
and if it does, the probability is that with a colony
like that planted on its line, it would make very different
terms from what it would with you or me. These agents
are not afraid, and their principals are rich people;
and if there was any loss, it would be divided up amongst
them so that they wouldn't any of them feel it."
Lapham stole a troubled glance at his wife, and saw
that there was no help in her.
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