She divined his thoughts, and her black heart leapt with joy. When he spoke to her she gave a faint scream, and said, apologetically—
“Oh! sir, pardon me; I did not know you were here.”
She showed him what she had been reading, and described her feelings with that perfidious eloquence which was one of her chief weapons.
Then she asked him to relate to her his life.
He sat down by her side with his eyes bent on the ground. She was delighted, but did not attempt to give expression to the joy she felt.
Then calmly and in soft low voice he entered upon his history.
He told her all about his college life, his three years at the university, his missionary prospects, his interview with his relative, and his appointment as chaplain to the prison.
He spoke to her of his mother and sister, whom he loved so warmly.
And he laid bare his warm and enthusiastic heart, into which she probed with cold and ingenious calculations.
When he had ended he found her silent and thoughtful, looking vacantly on the ground; he believed that she was buried in a reverie.