The terrible thought of Felix pressed heavier and heavier. She took the note from her pocket and pondered each word; the cruel, truthful words! If he had read them she might have had to believe all her life that she had hastened this illness! The sunshine grew warmer, beating down upon the paving stones in the yard, the faces kept their places in the windows, the child’s shrill, rebellious cry burst out again and the woman’s sharper voice.
Sue’s steps were moving overhead; suddenly, so suddenly as to break in upon the current of her thoughts, Sue’s voice rang out in her clear soprano, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me.”
The voice grated, the words coming from the thoughtless lips grated on her ear and on her heart, grated more harshly than the woman’s sharp voice in taunting rebuke.
“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.”
As soon as she had decided that she could not bear it another instant, the singing ceased. It ceased and left her in tears.
X.—FORGETTING THE BREAD.
Again Tessa was spending the night with Miss Jewett; Sue Greyson had chatted away half the evening, and it was nearly eleven before Tessa could put both arms around her friend and squeeze her.
“I am hungry for a talk with you, you dear little woman, every thing is getting to be criss-cross with me nowadays; I’m so troubled and so wicked that I almost want to die. You wouldn’t love me any more if you could know how false I am. All my life I have been so proud of being true,” she added bitterly, “I despise myself.”
“Is that all?”
Miss Jewett was leaning back in her little rocker. Almost before she knew it herself, Tessa had dropped upon the carpet at her feet.