“No, you have not.  And if you had, once in a way, met anyone here, they would have taken you to be a mere passer-by resting yourself in our hut; but if you were to make us as comfortable as you wish, why the very first chance visitor to the hut who would see that the loom and the spinning-wheel and old furniture were gone, and were replaced by the fine carpet, curtains, chairs, and sofa that you wish to give us, would go away and tell the wonder.  And people would say:  ’Where did Hannah Worth get these things?’ or, ‘How do they live?’ or, ’Who supports those girls?’ and so on.  Now, Mr. Brudenell, those are questions I will not have asked about myself and my sister, and that you ought not to wish to have asked about your wife!”

“Hannah, you are quite right!  You always are!  And yet it distresses me to see you living and working as you do.”

“We are inured to it, Mr. Brudenell.”

“But it will not be for long, Hannah.  Very soon my mother and sisters go to take possession of their new house in Washington.  When they have left Brudenell I will announce our marriage and bring you and your sister home.”

“Not me, Mr. Brudenell!  I have said before that in marrying Nora you did not marry all her poor relatives.  I have told you that I will not share the splendors of Nora’s destiny.  No one shall have reason to say of me, as they would say if I went home with you, that I had connived at the young heir’s secret marriage with my sister for the sake of securing a luxurious home for myself.  No, Mr. Brudenell, Nora is beautiful, and it is not unnatural that she should have made a high match; and the world will soon forgive her for it and forget her humble origin.  But I am a plain, rude, hard-working woman; am engaged to a man as poor, as rugged, and toil-worn as myself.  We would be strangely out of place in your mansion, subjected to the comments of your friends.  We will never intrude there.  I shall remain here at my weaving until the time comes, if it ever should come, when Reuben and myself may marry, and then, if possible, we will go to the West, to better ourselves in a better country.”

“Well, Hannah, well, if such be your final determination, you will allow me at least to do something towards expediting your marriage.  I can advance such a sum to Reuben Gray as will enable him to marry, and take you and all his own brothers and sisters to the rich lands of the West, where, instead of being encumbrances, they will be great helps to him; for there is to be found much work for every pair of hands, young or old, male or female,” said the young man, not displeased, perhaps, to provide for his wife’s poor relations at a distance from which they would not be likely ever to enter his sphere.

Hannah reflected for a moment and then said: 

“I thank you very much for that offer, Mr. Brudenell.  It was the wisest and kindest, both for yourself and us, that you could have made.  And I think that if we could see our way through repaying the advance, we would gratefully accept it.”