‘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.