“Do not leave me; sit beside me, dear Edward. I will sleep so much better when you are beside me.”
“Indeed!”
“Yes, believe me. Ah! that I could always keep you beside me!”
“What! you are for a new honeymoon?” I said this in a TONE of merriment, which Heaven knows, I little felt.
“Do not speak of it so lightly, Edward. It is too serious a matter. Ah! that you would always remain with me; that you would never leave me.”
“Pshaw! What sickly tenderness is this! Why, how could I earn my bread or yours?”
“I do not mean that you should neglect your business, but that when business is over, you should give me all your time as you used to. Remember, how pleasantly we passed the evenings after our marriage. Ah! how could you forget?”
“I do not, Julia.”
“But you do not care for them. We spend no such evenings now!”
“No! but it is no fault of mine!” I said gloomily; then, interrupting her answer, as if dreading that she might utter some simple but true remark, which might refute the interpretation which my words conveyed, that the fault was hers, I enjoined silence upon her.