‘Dear Adela! pray for strength, and it will be sure to come to you. How hard it is to know myself so happy when you have so much trouble!’
‘I could have borne it better but for this new pain. I don’t think I should ever have shown it; even you wouldn’t have known all I felt, Letty. I should have hoped for him—I don’t mean hoped on my own account, but that he might know how wicked he had been. How—how can a man do things so unworthy of himself, when it’s so beautiful to be good and faithful? I think he did care a little for me once, Letty.’
‘Don’t let us talk of him, pet.’
‘You are right; we mustn’t. His name ought never to pass my lips, only in my prayers.’
She grew calmer, and they sat hand in hand.
‘Try to make your mother understand,’ advised Letty. ‘Say that it is impossible you should ever accept him.’
‘She won’t believe that, I’m sure she won’t. And to think that, even if I did it only to please her, people would believe I had married him because he is rich!’
Letty spoke with more emphasis than hitherto.
‘But you cannot and must not do such a thing to please any one, Adela! It is wrong even to think of it. Nothing, nothing can justify that.’
How strong she was in the purity of her own love, good little Letty! So they talked together, and mingled their tears, and the room was made a sacred place as by the presence of sorrowing angels.