'What happier women might have thought of his
sermon I cannot say; there was not a dry eye among us at the
Refuge. As for me, he touched my heart as no man has touched it
before or since. The hard despair melted in me at the sound of
his voice; the weary round of my life showed its nobler side
again while he spoke. From that time I have accepted my hard lot,
I have been a patient woman. I might have been something more, I
might have been a happy woman, if I could have prevailed on
myself to speak to Julian Gray."
"What hindered you from speaking to him?"
"I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"Afraid of making my hard life harder still."
A woman who could have sympathized with her would perhaps have
guessed what those words meant. Grace was simply embarrassed by
her; and Grace failed to guess.
"I don't understand you," she said.
There was no alternative for Mercy but to own the truth in plain
words. She sighed, and said the words. "I was afraid I might
interest him in my sorrows, and might set my heart on him in
return." The utter absence of any fellow-feeling with her on
Grace's side expressed itself unconsciously in the plainest
terms.
Pages:
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40