“Very fine impulses,” declared the minister. “It is very affecting. I find myself much moved.” And he began pacing up and down.
“Sincere!” Annie repeated to herself in the same surprise.
“Oh, dear!” observed Mrs Ruthven, in a whisper, which, however, the widow heard: “how long it takes for some people to know some other people. There is Mrs Fleming, now, all perplexed about the dear creature. Why, she knew her; I mean, she had her with her before we ever saw her, and now we know her— Oh! how well, how thoroughly we know her—we know her to the bottom of her heart.”
“A most transparent being, indeed!” declared Mr Ruthven. “As guileless as a child.”
“Call me a child; you may,” sobbed Lady Carse. “None but children and such as I quarrel with their best friends. She has been to me—”
“You reproach yourself too severely, my dear lady,” declared the minister. “There are seasons of inequality in us all; not that I intend to justify—”
His wife did not wait for the end, but said, “Quarrel, my dear soul? Quarrel with your best friends? You do such a thing! Let us see whether you ever quarrel with us; and we are friends, are we not; you and we? Let us see whether you ever quarrel with us! Ah!”
Annie had finished her work; and she was gone before the long kiss of the new friends was over.
“It is only two days more to the sabbath,” thought she. Then she smiled, and said, “Anyone might call me a child, counting the days as if I could not wait for my treat. But, really, I did not know what the comfort of the sabbath would be. The chapel is all weather-tight now; and thank God for sending us a minister!”
As all expected, up came the steward; very early and very angry. Nobody from the minister’s house cared to