"I don't want her; 'twas the horse and van I wanted," he said, cruelly.
He was not really as cruel, though, as he appeared.

He seemed quite touched when he heard of his wife's starving state when she came in search of Huldah, and of her condition now, and expressed a desire to see her.

"I won't say nothing to upset her," he promised, when they seemed to hesitate.
Huldah's face had turned even whiter than Emma's, when she heard who was near, and what he wanted, her fear of him had been so increased since he carried her away by force that night.

But when she saw how eager her aunt was to see him, she did try to overcome her fears.
Within a few moments of Miss Rose's telling of her "news," he was there, in their midst.

To pale, trembling Huldah, whose every nerve had been set quivering by the mere sound of his step on the stair, he threw only a cool nod, as, awkwardly enough, he made his way to his wife's bedside, and sat down beside her.
"I hear you'm bad," he said, coolly, but it was plain that her altered appearance shocked him.