For he suffered in seeing
her suffer far more than she could understand.
At her own room door he left her and his heart was so heavy he could not
go to the mill. He could not think of gold and cotton while there was
such an abyss between him and his wife. Truly she had wronged and
wounded him in an intolerable manner, but his great love could look
beyond the wrong to her repentance and to his forgiveness.
Walking restlessly about his room or lost in sorrowful broodings an hour
passed, and then he began to tell himself that he must not for the
indulgence of even his great grief desert his lawful work. If things
went wrong at the mill, because of his absence, and gain was lost for
his delay, he would be wronging many more than John Hatton. Come what
might to him personally, he was bound by his father's, as well as his
own, promise to be "diligent in business, serving the Lord." That was
the main article of Hatton's contract with the God they served--the
poor, the sick, the little children whom no one loved, he could not
wrong them because he was in trouble with his wife.
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