“One day, as we worked together, Joseph Hoff looked at me through the trellis of a hop-vine. He was on one side and I was on the other. My heart trembled, and thenceforth his face was often before me.”
“That is but a small matter. The stranger in Zanah hath sometimes made my heart leap, but that meaneth naught.”
“After the hour in which Joseph Hoff looked at me, the day was happier when I could see him. I no longer rebelled against the hard tasks given me. I had sweet dreams,” declared Frieda.
“I have felt as thou sayest thou feelest, but it was prayer and fasting that made the earth like the outer courts of heaven. Frieda, Frieda, thou hast mistaken the spirit of holiness for earthly love.”
Walda Kellar leaned forward, clasping her hands together in a gesture which betrayed her relief at what she supposed was her discovery of the true state of her companion’s mind.
“Nay, nay, it was love that made a new life for me,” insisted Frieda, shaking her black-capped head and speaking in a low voice.
“How couldst thou know?”
“One day Joseph spoke to me sweet words; he touched my hand. Life became changed again. In my heart thenceforth was a great loneliness except when I was near Joseph Hoff. I trembled when he touched my hand, and I would have had him always by my side.”
“Ah, this that thou tellest me is strange indeed. I have known something of this loneliness, but it was the loneliness of the soul that seeketh God and feareth to lose the way to heaven. Tell me something more of thy love.”
“Joseph Hoff sometimes said I was like an angel to him. He spoke softly of love.”