“That won't do,” said Putney. “Ellen and I have thought that all out, and we find that I—or something that stood for me—was to blame, whoever else was to blame, too; we won't mention the hospitable Mrs. Munger. When Dr. Morrell had to go away Brother Peck took hold with me, and he suggested good resolutions. I told him I'd tried 'em, and they never did me the least good; but his sort really seemed to work. I don't know whether they would work again; Ellen thinks they would. I think we sha'n't ever need anything again; but that's what I always think when I come out of it—like a man with chills and fever.”
“It was Dr. Morrell who asked Mr. Peck to come,” said Mrs. Putney; “and it turned out for the best. Ralph got well quicker than he ever did before. Of course, Annie,” she explained, “it must seem strange to you hearing us talk of it as if it were a disease; but that's just like what it is—a raging disease; and I can't feel differently about anything that happens in it, though I do blame people for it.” Annie followed with tender interest the loving pride that exonerated and idealised Putney in the words of the woman who had suffered so much with him, and must suffer. “I couldn't help speaking as I did to Mrs. Munger.”
“She deserved it every word,” said Annie. “I wonder you didn't say more.”
“Oh, hold on!” Putney interposed. “We'll allow that the local influences were malarial, but I guess we can't excuse the invalid altogether. That's Brother Peck's view; and I must say I found it decidedly tonic; it helped to brace me up.”
“I think he was too severe with you altogether,” said his wife.
Putney laughed. “It was all I could do to keep Ellen from getting up and going out of church too, when Brother Gerrish set the example. She's a Gerrishite at heart.”
“Well, remember, Ralph,” said Annie, “that I'm with you in whatever you do to defeat that man. It's a good cause—a righteous cause—the cause of justice; and we must do everything for it,” she said fervently.
“Yes, any enormity is justifiable against injustice,” he suggested, “or the unjust; it's the same thing.”
“You know I don't mean that. I can trust you.”
“I shall keep within the law, at any rate,” said Putney.