"To bring it near," she said again, with no less deliberateness than before, but with a strange softness.
Just for to-day, she had told herself, she would try the sensation of being swept onward by the stream. But she weighed herself as she spoke, and weighed him and his passion, and her power against its force.
But he came no closer to her. He did not attempt to touch even her hand or her dress. His own hands fell helplessly at his sides, and he stood still before her.
"Oh, God!" he said in a hushed voice, "How happy I am!"
CHAPTER XXXVIII. "GOD BLESS YOU!"
Late the same night, Mrs. Haworth, who had been watching for her son alone in the grand, desolate room in which it was her lot to sit, rose to her feet on hearing him enter the house.
The first object which met his eye when he came in was her little figure and her patient face turned toward the door. As he crossed the threshold, she took a few steps as if to meet him, and then stopped.
"Jem!" she exclaimed. "Jem!"