She tried to
look most attentive to her brother, in order that Mr. Bradshaw
might not suspect anything unusual, while she stealthily took
hold of Ruth's passive hand, as it lay helpless on the cushion,
and pressed it softly and tenderly. But Ruth sat on the ground,
bowed down and crushed in her sorrow, till all was ended.
Miss Benson loitered in her seat, divided between the
consciousness that she, as locum tenens for the minister's wife,
was expected to be at the door to receive the kind greetings of
many after her absence from home, and her unwillingness to
disturb Ruth, who was evidently praying, and, by her quiet
breathing, receiving grave and solemn influences into her soul.
At length she rose up, calm and composed even to dignity. The
chapel was still and empty; but Miss Benson heard the buzz of
voices in the chapel-yard without. They were probably those of
people waiting for her; and she summoned courage, and taking
Ruth's arm in hers, and holding her hand affectionately, they
went out into the broad daylight. As they issued forth, Miss
Benson heard Mr. Bradshaw's strong bass voice speaking to her
brother, and winced, as she knew he would be wincing, under the
broad praise, which is impertinence, however little it may be
intended or esteemed as such.
"Oh, yes!--my wife told me yesterday about her--her husband was a
surgeon; my father was a surgeon too, as I think you have heard.
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