‘Dear husband, it is only your fancy. She is far too happy, by this time, not to have forgotten and forgiven long ago. Only pray for God’s forgiveness and all will be right. Or come away with me, as you proposed once before, and let us try to be at peace with our children again, in a new land.’
‘Not now,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘not while Arthur is in England. He would suspect—he would come too. Wait!—wait, till he is gone away again.’
‘Oh! Harry, never mind him. He may not go back to India for years. And your health is getting worse and worse. New scenes and interests would drive these feverish fancies out of your head. What is anything worth, in comparison to that? Leave the business to take care of itself! Sell it for anything it may fetch; only come away from England, and let me try to help you to overcome the dreadful habit you have contracted.’
‘It is too late, my dear. I could not do without it now. I should go mad.’
‘Henry, you will go mad if you do not leave it off! That Doctor Govan, who came here last evening, detected your fondness for morphia at once, and he told Arthur—’
But the idea that he was watched, raised the devil in Henry Hindes at once.
‘How dare Arthur set traps to catch me!’ he exclaimed furiously, ‘and you are aiding and abetting him. Who told you what the doctor said? When have you seen my brother since? Are you all in league against me?’
‘No! no! Henry; don’t be so foolish,’ replied his wife. ‘No one says or thinks anything except for your good. But your brother is anxious on your account. Anyone would be who had known you in former days. You cannot know how ill you look. And so he brought his friend to see you, hoping he might suggest a remedy. But Doctor Govan said nothing will do you any good until you leave off morphia.’
‘D—n his impudence!’ exclaimed Hindes, angrily; ‘that’s what he was sneaking round here for, was it? I’ll teach him to lay siege to me in my own house. The next time he shows his face here, I’ll kick him out, and Arthur into the bargain. But it’s all your fault,’ he continued, turning round upon her. ‘If you didn’t go about with that long face of yours, people wouldn’t be trying to find out what was the matter with me. Sending the children away from home, too; why, that in itself is enough to raise any one’s suspicion—you, who always advocated home education, especially for girls. It is abominable—infamous—that a man cannot have any dependence even on his wife!’
The injustice of this attack, coming so immediately upon her kindness to him, stirred all the resentment of which she was capable in Hannah’s breast.