`` If there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this man 's death , '' said Scrooge , quite agonised , `` show that person to me , Spirit ! I beseech you . '' The Phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment , like a wing ; and , withdrawing it , revealed a room by daylight , where a mother and her children were . She was expecting some one , and with anxious eagerness ; for she walked up and down the room ; started at every sound ; looked out from the window ; glanced at the clock ; tried , but in vain , to work with her needle ; and could hardly bear the voices of her children in their play . At length the long-expected knock was heard . She hurried to the door , and met her husband ; a man whose face was careworn and depressed , though he was young . There was a remarkable expression in it now ; a kind of serious delight of which he felt ashamed , and which he struggled to repress . He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him by the fire , and , when she asked him faintly what news -LRB- which was not until after a long silence -RRB- , he appeared embarrassed how to answer . `` Is it good , '' she said , `` or bad ? '' to help him . `` Bad , '' he answered . `` We are quite ruined ? '' `` No . There is hope yet , Caroline . '' `` If he relents , '' she said , amazed , `` there is ! Nothing is past hope , if such a miracle has happened . '' `` He is past relenting , '' said her husband . `` He is dead . '' She was a mild and patient creature , if her face spoke truth ; but she was thankful in her soul to hear it , and she said so with clasped hands . She prayed forgiveness the next moment , and was sorry ; but the first was the emotion of her heart .
`` What the half-drunken woman , whom I told you of last night , said to me when I tried to see him and obtain a week 's delay , and what I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me , turns out XXXXX have been quite true .
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