Certainly this pleased me greatly, for I saw at once that I was removed from the stultifying influences which had so long been exercised over my mind. Now I should find literary food to supply my craving. My eyes fairly sparkled, as I answered,
"This is what I have long desired, Miss Nancy; and you have assigned to me the position I most covet."
"I am glad I have pleased you, child. It is my pleasure to gratify others. Our lives are short, at best, and he or she only lives truly who does the most good."
This was a style and manner of talk that charmed me. Beautiful example and type of womankind! I felt like doing reverence to her.
She reached her thin hand out to help herself to a glass of water, that stood on a stand near by. I sprang forward to relieve her.
"Ah, thank you," she said, in a most bland tone; "I am very weak; the slightest movement convinces me of the failure of my strength."
I begged that she would not exert herself, but always call on me for everything that she needed.
"I came here to serve you, and I assure you, my dear Miss Nancy, I shall be most happy in doing it. Mine will, I believe, truly be a 'labor of love.'"
Another sweet smile, with the gilded light of a sunbeam, broke over her calm, sweet face! Bless her! she and all of her class should be held as "blessed among women;" for do they not walk with meek and reverent footsteps in the path of her, the great model and prototype of all the sex?
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