“Oh, hush! oh, hush! in the name of the good God. Don’t say such things, Jonathan, my husband; or you will crush me with fear and horror. Just think, my dear⁠—I have been thinking all this long, long day of it⁠—that⁠ ⁠… perhaps⁠ ⁠… some day⁠ ⁠… I, too, may need such pity; and that some other like you⁠—and with equal cause for anger⁠—may deny it to me! Oh, my husband! my husband, indeed I would have spared you such a thought had there been another way; but I pray that God may not have treasured your wild words, except as the heartbroken wail of a very loving and sorely stricken man. Oh, God, let these poor white hairs go in evidence of what he has suffered, who all his life has done no wrong, and on whom so many sorrows have come.”