CHAPTER XXVIII
AN UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN LOVERS
It was well they had so early and so truly strengthened the
spirit to bear, for the events which had to be endured soon came
thick and threefold.
Every evening Mr. and Miss Benson thought the worst must be over;
and every day brought some fresh occurrence to touch upon the raw
place. They could not be certain, until they had seen all their
acquaintances, what difference it would make in the cordiality of
their reception: in some cases it made much; and Miss Benson was
proportionably indignant. She felt this change in behaviour more
than her brother. His great pain arose from the coolness of the
Bradshaws. With all the faults which had at times grated on his
sensitive nature (but which he now forgot, and remembered only their
kindness), they were his old familiar friends--his kind, if
ostentatious, patrons--his great personal interest, out of his own
family; and he could not get over the suffering he experienced from
seeing their large square pew empty on Sundays--from perceiving how
Mr. Bradshaw, though he bowed in a distant manner when he and Mr.
Benson met face to face, shunned him as often as he possibly could.
All that happened in the household, which once was as patent to him
as his own, was now a sealed book; he heard of its doings by chance,
if he heard at all. Just at the time when he was feeling the most
depressed from this cause, he met Jemima at a sudden turn of the
street.
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