With her head against his shoulder she cried hysterically.
“I do not want to go—no, I do not want!” she kept repeating.
Thinking her eccentric stubbornness due to her condition, he said in the tenderest voice:
“I could not leave you alone now. Why, what would a little girl like you do all alone with a wee baby and no husband to care for both of you.”
She struck her hands passionately together.
“Tha’s why!” she said. “Jus’ why I doan want go. I am ’fraid for that liddle bit bebby.”
Argument and persuasion seemed useless at this time, for Azalea could neither understand the one, nor would she yield to the other. Even when Richard Verley returned from Tokyo, where he had found money cabled for two passages by his missionary society, Azalea would not consider the journey. A less conscientious man than the young minister would have used the price of the second passage in providing for the comfort of his wife, during his absence, but Verley repelled the idea, even though he knew that once in America he could easily find funds. So in obedience to his Massachusetts conscience, Azalea’s share of the cabled funds was sent back.
Then it was that Azalea would hysterically consent to journey with her husband, only to refuse in the end.
Verley’s recall was imperative. Yet at times he thought of refusing to return. His many gifts and benevolences among the people had eaten away the last instalment of his small salary. He could not leave his wife supplied with funds sufficient for the entire period of her illness; yet once in America he would be able to send small sums regularly. The society had mentioned something vaguely of a desire to have him lecture in the United States and after that it was intimated that he might be sent to China. In any event he would return for Azalea after the birth of her child.
All these confused thoughts and reasonings played through the mind and conscience of Verley. Yet so finely balanced were the moral and emotional traits of this young man that for a time he could come to no decision. He prayed, and then the precepts of his religion conquered. Since Azalea would not accompany him, he must go alone. Parting was inevitable, but absence was not for long.