“Oh, you’ll only laugh at me.”
“No, I won’t laugh. I never knew a Cinderella who went to the palace and danced with the King’s son.”
He drew her up a little in the bed and placed the pillows around her. Then he seated himself on the couch at her feet and smiled so persuasively that she really couldn’t resist. She pictured the kitchen and how comfortably she had settled herself and—she really couldn’t have been asleep she saw everything so plainly and, at first, she did not believe the fairy godmother. 98
Dr. Richards was really charmed as she went on. It was all so vivid, so beautiful. She appeared to have a better command of language than most children of her years, and the whole picture was exquisite. Why, it seemed very real to him. And her face was a study. Surely the child must be a genius, she made the things so real and not overdrawn. A veritable fairy palace.
Then she drew a long breath and a lovely smile irradiated her eyes.
“I’m so glad I went,” she said in a satisfied tone, freighted with a certain joyousness that appealed to his heart. She really was transfigured at that moment. What possibilities were lying in her soul unawakened. The little bound-out girl would never, could never realize them alone in her fight with life. For he had known:
|
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert, air.” |
When a helping hand would have transplanted it into a garden of appreciation. 99
A sudden fatherhood stirred within him. He had thought more than once of the woman he would like for his wife; now he wanted this little girl to grow up by his side and bloom with the sacred joy within her.
“I’m glad, too,” he said in a strange, full voice that trembled with emotion.