That's my
maxim." So saying, he replaced the bottle in the cupboard.
It was he who, in a firm commanding voice, at last told Jem and Mary
to be off, or they would be too late. Mrs. Sturgis had kept up till
then; but as they left her house, she could no longer restrain her
tears, and cried aloud in spite of her husband's upbraiding.
"Perhaps they'll be too late for the train!" exclaimed she, with a
degree of hope, as the clock struck two.
"What! and come back again! No! no! that would never do. We've
done our part, and cried our cry; it's no use going over the same
ground again. I should ha' to give 'em more out of yon bottle when
next parting time came, and them three glasses they ha' made a hole
in the stuff, I can tell you. Time Jack was back from Hamburg with
some more."
When they reached Manchester, Mary looked very white, and the
expression of her face was almost stern. She was in fact summoning
up her resolution to meet her father if he were at home. Jem had
never named his midnight glimpse of John Barton to human being:
but Mary had a sort of presentiment, that wander where he would, he
would seek his home at last.
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