n the rockiness of her original
make-up.

"There, there, John, don't be so down-hearted," she stammered, drawing
her chair closer and putting her hand on his shoulder. "We'll bring it
round right, you see if we don't. You've done the most yourself already,
for I'm proud of the way you've acted, stiffening right up like an
honest man and showing you've got some good sensible Hathaway stuff in
you, after all, and ain't ashamed to turn your back on your evil ways.
Susanna ain't one to refuse forgiveness."

"She forgave for a long time, but she refused at last. Why should she
change now?" John asked.

"You remember she hasn't heard a single word from you, nor about you, in
that out-of-the-way place where she's been living," said Louisa,
consolingly. "She thinks you're the same as you were, or worse, maybe.
Perhaps she's waiting for you to make some sign through me, for she
don't know that you care anything about her, or are pining to have her
back."

"Such a woman as Susanna must know better than that!" cried John. "She
ought to know that when a man got used to living with anybody like her,
he could never endure any other kind."

"How should she know all that? Jack's been writing to her and telling
her the news for the last few weeks, though I haven't said a word about
you because I didn't know how long your reformation was going to hold
out; but I won't let the grass grow under my feet now, till I tell her
just how things stand!"

"You're a good woman, Louisa; I don't see why I never noticed it
before."

"It's because I've been concealing my goodness too much. Stay here with
me to-night and don't go back to brood in that dismal, forsaken house.
We'll see how Jack is in the morning, and if he's all right, take him
along with you, so's to be all there together if Susanna comes back this
week, as I kind of hope she will. Make Ellen have the house all nice and
cheerful from top to bottom, with a good supper ready to put on the
table the night she comes. You'd better pick your asters and take 'em in
for the parlor, then I'll cut the chrysanthemums for you in the middle
of the week. The day she comes I'll happen in, and stay to dinner if you
find it's going to be mortifying for you; but if everything is as I
expect it will be, and the way Susanna always did have things, I'll
make for home and leave you to yourselves. Susanna ain't one to nag and
hector and triumph over a man when he's repented."

John hugged Louisa, p