“‘Only stooped to tie
Her silver sandals, ere deliciously
She bowed into the heavens her timid head.’”
And Bunty said, “What rot!”
[249]
]How happy and light-hearted they had been then! Oh the strange and sad and oh the glad things that happen in this world between the crescent moon and the full!
Such a white cold moon it was, so far away, so wondrously large and calm. It suggested the immeasurable vastness of the universe, the infinitesimal smallness of herself. Her heart sickened and died within her,—what use was it for her to pray and weep and beat her hands to such a far-off sky? What madness to suppose the great high awful God beyond it would put forth His saving hand just because one small insignificant creature down on earth prayed to Him! Such a faultful creature too; all her life through she could not remember one really good thing she had done, nothing but wrongdoings, littlenesses, and selfishness came to her mind. She looked away from the sky and scornful moon, she went to and fro with her eyes on the white ground.
“Of course it’s no use,” she muttered, and held her hands together more tightly.
A buggy stopped at the gate. The old doctor got out; he told the coachman not to drive in, but to wait there.
Two people passing up the road saw him, and crossed over.
[250]
]“How’s the little girl?” they said.