Important as it was to him to be employed,
he must have refused the appointment if Miss Fosbrook had been
discontented, or had not had the children so well in hand. He
explained that he had reason to think that Mrs. Merrifield's present
illness had been the effect of all she had gone through while he was
in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. She had been a very strong
person, and had never thought of sparing herself; but she and all her
little children had had to get into Stokesley in his absence; she had
to manage the estate and farm, teach the elder children, and take
care of the babies, with no help but Nurse Freeman's: and though he
had been wounded when with the Naval Brigade, and had been at death's
door with cholera, the effects had done him no lasting harm at all;
while the over-strain of the anxiety and exertion that she had
undergone all alone had so told upon her, that she had never been
well since, and he much feared, would never be in perfect health
again. He must depend upon Miss Fosbrook for watching over her and
saving her, as his little Susie could not yet do; and for letting him
know from time to time how she was going on, and whether he ought to
give up everything and come home.
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