Her father's often reiterated speeches had not been
without their effect. He drew a clear line of partition, which
separated mankind into two great groups, to one of which, by the
grace of God, he and his belonged; while the other was composed
of those whom it was his duty to try and reform, and bring the
whole force of his morality to bear upon, with lectures,
admonitions, and exhortations--a duty to be performed, because it
was a duty--but with very little of that Hope and Faith which is
the Spirit that maketh alive. Jemima had rebelled against these
hard doctrines of her father's, but their frequent repetition had
had its effect, and led her to look upon those who had gone
astray with shrinking, shuddering recoil, instead of with a pity
so Christ-like as to have both wisdom and tenderness in it.
And now she saw among her own familiar associates one, almost her
house-fellow, who had been stained with that evil most repugnant
to her womanly modesty, that would fain have ignored its
existence altogether. She loathed the thought of meeting Ruth
again. She wished that she could take her up, and put her down at
a distance somewhere--anywhere--where she might never see or hear
of her more; never be reminded, as she must be whenever she saw
her, that such things were in this sunny, bright, lark-singing
earth, over which the blue dome of heaven bent softly down as
Jemima sat in the hay-field that June afternoon; her cheeks
flushed and red, but her lips pale and compressed, and her eyes
full of a heavy, angry sorrow.
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