Before he had shaped his thought, she said:
“I think, if there were a God, he would help me; for I am nothing but a poor slave now. I have hardly a will of my own.”
The sigh she heaved told of a hopeless oppression.
“The best man, and the wisest, and the noblest I ever knew,” said Hugh, “believed in God with his whole heart and soul and strength and mind. In fact, he cared for nothing but God; or rather, he cared for everything because it belonged to God. He was never afraid of anything, never vexed at anything, never troubled about anything. He was a good man.”
Hugh was surprised at the light which broke upon the character of David, as he held it before his mind’s eye, in order to describe it to Euphra. He seemed never to have understood him before.
“Ah! I wish I knew him. I would go to that man, and ask him to save me. Where does he live?”
“Alas! I do not know whether he is alive or dead—the more to my shame. But he lives, if he lives, far away in the north of Scotland.”
She paused.
“No. I could not go there. I will write to him.”
Hugh could not discourage her, though he doubted whether a real communication could be established between them.