Mrs. Burton also took his agreement for granted, for she went on:
“I learned the verse for Billy’s and Dan’s delectation, but I am trying it first on you. I don’t suppose you have read an extraordinary but uncomfortable book called ‘The Spoon River Anthology?’”
Mrs. Burton naturally made no effort at recitation, which, under the circumstances, would have been ridiculous. She merely repeated the verse as any one else would have done, except that it was impossible for her to change the beautiful quality of her voice.
“My boy, wherever you are,
Work for your soul’s sake,
That all the clay of you, all the dross of you,
May yield to the fire of you,
Till the fire is nothing but light!
Nothing but light!”
To his amazement Ralph Marshall felt tears in his eyes.