Take it away, sir," she says, "it's a face that never turned from me in sickness and distress, and I can hardly bear to turn from it now, when, God knows, I suffer both in no ordinary degree." I couldn't say nothing, but I raised my head from the inventory which I was filling up, and looked at Fixem; the old fellow nodded to me significantly, so I ran my pen through the "_Mini_" I had just written, and left the miniature on the table.
'Well, sir, to make short of a long story, I was left in possession, and in possession I remained; and though I was an ignorant man, and the master of the house a clever one, I saw what he never did, but what he would give worlds now (if he had 'em) to have seen in time.

I saw, sir, that his wife was wasting away, beneath cares of which she never complained, and griefs she never told.

I saw that she was dying before his eyes; I knew that one exertion from him might have saved her, but he never made it.

I don't blame him: I don't think he _could_ rouse himself.

She had so long anticipated all his wishes, and acted for him, that he was a lost man when left to himself.