I faintly said, “Yes.”
“You don’t speak so heartily, though, as I thought you would,” said he. “Don’t you sympathize with us, Cherry?”
I looked up at him with a Smile, though my Lip quivered, and said fervently, “Oh, yes!”
“That’s right!” said he gladly. “Now I shall feel that, whether Things go rough or smooth with me, you take cordial Part in them. God bless you, Cherry! And if ever I’m in any little Difficulty with Violet, I shall come to you for Advice and Help, rely upon it!—Hark, there is your Mother’s Bell.”
I ran off, glad to leave him; and found my Mother coughing, and in want of some Water. When she had recovered herself, and composed herself again to Sleep, I sat by her Casement, looking out on the same Scene I had been gazing on an Hour before; but oh! with what different Feelings!
The Trouble of my Soul taught me how much I had cared for him, what Expectations I had nourished of him, what Disappointment I felt in him. All was changed, all was shivered: never to be built up again! And yet no one knew what Hopes were wrecked within me.—The World was going on just the same!
I thought how kind my Father and Mother had been to him, and how likely it was they had hoped he would marry me, and how certainly, in that case, my Father would have shared his Business with him.
I thought how dull and forlorn a Place the World would now seem to me, but resolved they should never know it. I would go on, in all Respects, just the same.
Large Tears were flowing unrestrained down my Cheeks, when Master Blower’s Bell, having been once rung already, was now pulled again with some Impatience; and as Dolly had stepped out, I answered it myself, and found he wanted his Supper, which he took at no particular Time, but just whenever he was inclined to lay aside his Reading or Writing. I might have spread the Table for him nineteen Times out of twenty, without his ever looking at me; however, on this Occasion he happened to have nothing better to do, and observed I was in trouble.
“Child,” said he, “is thy Mother worse?”