"
"True," said Mr. Benson mournfully. "And you may depend upon it,
if it really is the best for Leonard, she will come round to it
by-and-by. It is almost extraordinary to see the way in which her
earnest and most unselfish devotion to this boy's real welfare
leads her to right and wise conclusions."
"I wish I could tame her so as to let me meet her as a friend.
Since the baby was born, she comes to see Jemima. My wife tells
me, that she sits and holds it soft in her arms, and talks to it
as if her whole soul went out to the little infant. But if she
hears a strange footstep on the stair, what Jemima calls the
'wild-animal look' comes back into her eyes, and she steals away
like some frightened creature. With all that she has done to
redeem her character, she should not be so timid of observation.
"You may well say 'with all that she has done!' We of her own
household hear little or nothing of what she does. If she wants
help, she simply tells us how and why; but if not--perhaps
because it is some relief to her to forget for a time the scenes
of suffering in which she has been acting the part of comforter,
and perhaps because there always was a shy, sweet reticence about
her--we never should know what she is and what she does, except
from the poor people themselves, who would bless her in words if
the very thought of her did not choke them with tears. Yet, I do
assure you, she passes out of all this gloom, and makes sunlight
in our house.
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