"Some day hope will die out in your heart," he said discouragingly.
"God forbid!" she spoke solemnly. In a moment she continued:
"I am sure you do not realize how many poor creatures never have had a chance to be decent. Just think how many are born of sinful, ignorant parents, into an environment of sin and ignorance. They live in it, they die in it. I, by no will or merit of my own, received a blessed heritage. My ancestors for generations have been intelligent, godly people, many of them people of distinction. I was born into an atmosphere of love, of intelligence, of spirituality, and of refinement. I have lived in that atmosphere all my life. My good impulses have been fostered, my wrong ones checked."
"I'll wager you were painfully conscientious," he said.
"Why should I have been given so much," she continued, "and these poor creatures so little, unless it was that I should minister to their needs?"
"You may be right." He seemed unconvinced. "But I am sure of one thing. If I had been your grandfather, and you my grandchild, I never would have let you leave me."
He was smiling.
"You should know my grandfather, and then you would understand."
"How did you happen to come to Gila?" he asked.
"I met Mr. and Mrs. Clayton in the home of one of their friends in England. We were house guests there at the same time. We returned to America on the same steamer. Mrs. Clayton knew I was to do settlement work, and urged me to come to Gila a while instead. So I came."