ak, but I will
not be weak in such a matter as this. I will have no lawyer." She did
not regard this denial on his part as very material, though she would
fain have followed Mr. Walker's advice had she been able; but when,
later in the day, he declared that the police should fetch him, then
her spirits gave way. Early in the morning he had seemed to assent to
the expedient of going into Silverbridge on the Thursday, and it was
not till after he had worked himself into a rage about the proposed
attorney, that he utterly refused to make the journey. During the
whole day, however, his state was such as almost to break his wife's
heart. He would do nothing. He would not go to the school, nor even
stir beyond the house-door. He would not open a book. He would not
eat, nor would he even sit at table or say the accustomed grace
when the scanty mid-day meal was placed upon the table. "Nothing is
blessed to me," he said, when his wife pressed him to say the word
for their child's sake. "Shall I say that I thank God when my heart
is thankless? Shall I serve my child by a lie?" Then for hours he
sat in the same position, in the old arm-chair, hanging over the
fire speechless, sleepless, thinking ever, as she well knew, of the
injustice of the world. She hardly dared to speak to him, so great
was the bitterness of his words when he was goaded to reply. At last,
late in the evening, feeling that it would be her duty to send to Mr
Walker early on the following morning, she laid her hand gently on
his shoulder and asked him for his promise. "I may tell Mr. Walker
that you will be there on Thursday?"

"No," he said, shouting at her. "No. I will have no such message
sent." She started back, trembling. Not that she was accustomed to
tremble at his ways, or to show that she feared him in his paroxysms,
but that his voice had been louder than she had before known it. "I
will hold no intercourse with them at Silverbridge in this matter. Do
you hear me, Mary?"

"I hear you, Josiah; but I must keep my word to Mr. Walker. I promised
that I would send to him."

"Tell him, then, that I will not stir a foot out of this house on
Thursday of my own accord. On Thursday I shall be here; and here I
will remain all day,--unless they take me hence by force."

"But Josiah--"

"Will you obey me, or shall I walk into Silverbridge myself and tell
the man that I will not come to him." Then he arose from his chair
and stretched forth his hand to his ha