John Hathaway to take any pleasure in doing business with
Mr. John.
John's remnant of pride, completely humbled by this last withdrawal of
confidence, would not suffer him to tell Atterbury that he had come to his
senses and bidden farewell to the old life, or so he hoped and believed. To
lose a wife and child in a way infinitely worse than death; to hear the
unwelcome truth that as a husband you have grown so offensive as to be beyond
endurance; to have your own sister tell you that you richly deserve such
treatment; to be virtually dismissed from a valuable business connection, all
this is enough to sober any man above the grade of a moral idiot, and John was
not that; he was simply a self-indulgent, pleasure-loving, thoughtless,
willful fellow, without any great amount of principle. He took his medicine,
however, said nothing, and did his share of the business from day to day
doggedly, keeping away from his partner as much as possible.
Ellen, the faithful maid of all work, stayed on with him at the old home; Jack
wrote to him every week, and often came to spend Sunday with him.
"Aunt Louisa's real good to me," he told his father, "but she's not like
mother.
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