‘I can’t say more;—but, oh! if I could help keeping you from happiness!’ and he was here overpowered by cough and emotion so much as to alarm her, and she was forced to keep silence, and only kiss him again. He returned it with a squeeze of the hand and a look of affection. He had never given her such an one in the days when she deemed his love a thing exclusively her own, she had now gained something far better than his heart had then to offer. The best spot in it then had nothing half so deep, fond, and unselfish as what he gave her now.
She had ceased her wilful struggle, and besides all the rest, even this was added unto her.
CHAPTER 14
A calm stream flowing with a muddy one,
Till, in its onward current, it absorbs
With swifter movement and in purer light
The vexed eddies of its wayward brother,
A leaning and upbearing parasite,
Clothing the stem, which else had fallen quite.
Shadow forth thee; the world hath not another
Of such refined and chastened purity.
—TENNYSON
Patience and prayer brought their fruit in due season.
‘Violet, you will not be able to go to church on Christmas-day.’
‘No, I am not strong enough, even if you could spare me.’
‘Do you think Mr. Rivers could come to us?’
‘O, thank you!’