would not make a bit of difference," she said: "it would be sure to be
found out, and strange folks would despise us even more than our own
folks do; perhaps things will come round right after a while, if we stay
here." Jim did not insist, for he loved Sally tenderly; and he felt, to
the core of his heart, that the least he could do for her now was to let
her live where she chose to live: but he grew more sullen and dogged,
day by day; and Sally grew sadder and quieter, and things were fast
coming to a bad pass, when Hetty Gunn's generous offer came to them,
like a great rift of sunlight in a black sky.

When Sally sank into the chair sobbing, Hetty made a quick movement
towards her, and was about to speak; but, seeing that old Nan was
hastening to do the same thing, she wisely waited, thinking to
herself,--

"If Nan will only take her under her wing, all will go well."

Old Nan's tenderness of heart was unlimited. If her worst enemy were
in pain or sorrow, she would succor him: ready perhaps to take up
the threads of her resentment again, as soon as his sufferings were
alleviated; but a very Samaritan of good offices as long as he needed
them. Caesar, so well understood this trait in her, that in their
matrimonial disputes, which, it must be confessed, were frequent and
sharp, when all other weapons failed him, he fell back on the colic. He
had only to interrupt the torrent of her reproaches, with a groan, and a
twist of his fat abdomen, and "oh, honey, I'm so bad in my stomach!"
and she was transformed, in an instant from a Xantippe into a Florence
Nightingale: the whole current of her wrath deviated from him to the
last meal he had eaten, whatever it might be.