Joanna nodded.
"Now, in the case of Mr. Sweeting," continued Martha, "him that so far forgot himself as to say that trousers should be two-sided, you know. As long as he waxed fat and kicked, and was filled with pride and vainglory, Eliza Ann would have nothing to say to him. But when he fell sick of the small-pox, and there was no woman to look after him—his mother being dead, and his step-mother living at such a distance and caring more for the things of this life than for her husband's first family (which was all sons)—Eliza Ann went and nursed him herself, and if it had not been for her the poor young man would have died."
"Did she escape the infection?" asked Joanna anxiously.
"Not she. As soon as Mr. Sweeting was pretty well, Eliza Ann caught the complaint and had a terrible time. And when she got well again she found her face was disfigured, and her beautiful hair all cut off."
"Oh, how sad!" cried Joanna. "Was she pretty before her illness?"
"No, my dear; far from it. She was always a plain woman at the best of times, but the small-pox left her positively ugly. She really had had beautiful hair; but when it grew again it all came grey. Perhaps her hair, being her one beauty, might have proved a snare to her; so the Lord saw fit to remove it, lest she herself—having saved others—should become a castaway."
"Did she mind much when she found her face was so disfigured?" Joanna asked: "and did she regret what she had done?"
"Never once, miss. Eliza Ann is not one of the regretting sort. She does what she thinks right, and leaves Providence to take the consequences. The first time I saw her after her illness, 'My conscience alive, Eliza Ann,' says I, 'you are a figure of fun!' 'Martha,' says she, 'the Lord called me to nurse that poor, misguided young man; and was I going to let the thought of my vile body come between me and the Lord's work?' That was how Eliza Ann looked at the matter; and it was the sensible view to my thinking."
Joanna's eyes filled with tears; self-sacrifice—even in Eliza Anns—always touched her.
"I hope you said something comforting to your sister, Martha."