her hearing it; but, for all that, she used sometimes to wish that he
would recognize the fact that there might still be something worth
hearing and seeing in the great city. But he never went there again,
and though he did not prohibit her going, yet he showed so little
sympathy with her when she came back full of what she had done on her
visit that she ceased caring to go. Not but what he was kind and
willing in giving his consent, and in furnishing her amply with money.
'There, there, my little woman, take that! Dress yourself up as fine as
any on 'em, and buy what you like, for the credit of Hamley of Hamley;
and go to the park and the play, and show off with the best on 'em. I
shall be glad to see thee back again, I know; but have thy fling while
thou art about it.' Then when she came back it was, 'Well, well, it has
pleased thee, I suppose, so that's all right. But the very talking
about it tires me, I know, and I can't think how you have stood it all.
Come out and see how pretty the flowers are looking in the south
garden. I've made them sow all the seeds you like; and I went over to
Hollingford nursery to buy the cuttings of the plants you admired last
year. A breath of fresh air will clear my brain after listening to all
this talk about the whirl of London, which is like to have turned me
giddy.'

Mrs. Hamley was a great reader, and had considerable literary taste.
She was gentle and sentimental; tender and good. She gave up her visits
to London; she gave up her sociable pleasure in the company of her
fellows in education and position. Her husband, owing to the
deficiencies of his early years, disliked associating with those to
whom he ought to have been an equal; he was too proud to mingle with
his inferiors. He loved his wife all the more dearly for her sacrifices
for him; but, deprived of all her strong interests, she sank into ill-
health; nothing definite; only she never was well. Perhaps if she had