said Ham, “my dear! I am happy in the sight of you. I am happy, all day long, in the thoughts of you.”
“Ah! that’s not enough!” she cried. “That is because you are good; not because I am! Oh, my dear, it might have been a better fortune for you, if you had been fond of someone else—of someone steadier and much worthier than me, who was all bound up in you, and never vain and changeable like me!”
“Poor little tender-heart,” said Ham, in a low voice. “Martha has overset her, altogether.”
“Please, aunt,” sobbed Em’ly, “come here, and let me lay my head upon you. Oh, I am very miserable tonight, aunt! Oh, I am not as good a girl as I ought to be. I am not, I know!”
Peggotty had hastened to the chair before the fire. Em’ly, with her arms around her neck, kneeled by her, looking up most earnestly into her face.