And when I'm old and past work, I'll not be too proud to take
whatever you can spare me, and eat it with thankfulness."
So they sat down, and were soon making merry together.
But nothing could reconcile Mrs. Macintosh to the thought of Annie for
her daughter-in-law; her pride, indignation, and disappointment were
much too great, and they showed themselves the worse that her husband
would not say a word against either Annie or Hector, who, he insisted,
had behaved very well. He would not go a step beyond confessing that the
thing was not altogether as he could have wished, but upheld that it
contained ground for satisfaction. In vain he called to his wife's mind
the fact that neither she nor he were by birth or early position so
immeasurably above Annie. Nothing was of any use to calm her; nothing
would persuade her that Annie had not sought their service with the
express purpose of carrying away her son. Her behavior proved, indeed,
that Annie had done prudently in going at once home to her mother, where
presently her late mistress sought and found her; acting royally the
part of one righteously outraged in her dearest dignity. Her worst enemy
could have desired for her nothing more degrading than to see and hear
her. She insisted that Hector should abjure Annie, or leave the house.
Hector laid the matter before his father. He encouraged him to humor his
mother as much as he could, and linger on, not going every night to see
the girl, in the hope that time might work some change.
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