He ate,--but without that
relish; and food seemed no longer to nourish him, for each morning
his face had caught more of the ghastly foreshadowing of Death.
The neighbours kept strangely aloof. Of late years John Barton had
had a repellent power about him, felt by all, except to the few who
had either known him in his better and happier days, or those to
whom he had given his sympathy and his confidence. People did not
care to enter the doors of one whose very depth of thoughtfulness
rendered him moody and stern. And now they contented themselves
with a kind inquiry when they saw Mary in her goings-out or in her
comings-in. With her oppressing knowledge, she imagined their
reserved conduct stranger than it was in reality. She missed Job
and Margaret too; who, in all former times of sorrow or anxiety
since their acquaintance first began, had been ready with their
sympathy.
But most of all she missed the delicious luxury she had lately
enjoyed in having Jem's tender love at hand every hour of the day,
to ward off every wind of heaven, and every disturbing thought.
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