When he entered his uncle's shop, Ozias looked at him sharply.
"If you're sick you'd better go home and go to bed," he said, in a voice of harsh concern.
"I am not sick," said Jerome, and fell to work with a sort of fury.
As the days went on it seemed to him that he could not bear life any longer if he did not hear how Lucina was, and yet the most obvious steps to hear he did not take.

It never occurred to him to march straight to the Squire's house, and inquire of him concerning his daughter's health.

Far from that, he actually dreaded to meet him, lest he read in his face that she was worse.

He did not go to meeting, lest the minister mention her in his prayer for the sick; he stayed as little as possible in the company of his mother and sister, lest they repeat the sad news concerning her; if a neighbor came in, he got up and left the room directly.

He never went to the village store of an evening; he ostracized himself from his kind, lest they stab him with the confirmation of his agonizing fear.