“Yes, and a cloud above me that can never be lifted until the bright morning shall come, that will shed light on every sorrowing heart. You do not know, you never can know how some souls are hungering.”
“Ah,” she said, “I have not even the love of a mother and sister to cheer me, as I traverse life’s path. There is a skeleton in the closet of every home, and mine will step out and mock me with its hideous form even though I doubly bar the door.”
“A skeleton in your home, Miss Elsworth; have you no friends or relatives?”
“I am all alone. I never knew a mother’s love or a sister’s.”
“Then why mourn the loss of that which you never possessed?”
“Ah, Mr. Wilmer, it is the skeleton that still lives that is throwing its shadow across my path. Had I a mother’s companionship the shadow might seem less.”
“Yes, but a woman possessing your talents and the name you have won should be happy.”
She smiled sadly.
“I try to be happy and I make myself believe that I am. I do not allow the skeleton to crowd out every other thought and duty; only at times it stands before me ere I am aware of its presence, and then my heart cries out because I know that it will follow me to the end of life.”
Scott wondered, but he did not ask what her sorrow 297 could be. He looked at the lovely face before him; he noticed the beautiful tint of the rich complexion; the crimson lips and the dreamy black eyes shaded by their curling lashes, and he was lost in admiration.