"
He went upstairs to his study, and found Mrs. Sewell waiting there.
"Well, _now_--what, David?"
"Now what?" he feebly echoed.
"Yes. What has that wretched creature come for now?"
"You may well call him a wretched creature," sighed Sewell.
"Is he really engaged? Has he come to get you to marry him?"
"I think he'd rather have me bury him at present." Sewell sat down,
and, bracing his elbow on his desk, rested his head heavily on his
hand.
"Well," said his wife, with a touch of compassion tempering her
curiosity.
He began to tell her what had happened, and he did not spare himself
in the statement of the case. "There you have the whole affair now.
And a very pretty affair it is. But, I declare," he concluded, "I
can't see that any one is to blame for it."
"No one, David?"
"Well, Adam, finally, of course. Or Eve. Or the Serpent," replied
the desperate man.
Seeing him at this reckless pass, his wife forebore reproach, and
asked, "What are you going to do?"
"I am going around there in the morning to tell Mrs. Harmon all
about Barker."
"She will send him away instantly."
"I dare say."
"And what will the poor thing do?"
"Goodness knows."
"I'm afraid Badness knows. It will drive him to despair."
"Well, perhaps not--perhaps not," sighed the minister. "At any rate,
we must not _let_ him be driven to despair.
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