"It is singular that it rains." This was what he was saying.
"Why?" The word mellowed into a happy little laugh. The laugh said: "Let it rain, and let the wind sigh and moan among the leafless branches; I don't care in the least; the night, and the darkness, and the sighing are as nothing to me; they are all 'without,' and I am hedged in, and sheltered, and safe, and happy."
"It rained, that night, you know. I remember just how the drops sounded on the window-pane, and how the wind moaned, and shook the trees angrily because it could not get in at you. It seemed to know that it would never be able to touch you, and to know, also, that in a few minutes I would have to come out to it in the darkness and be whirled whither it would."
"What a dreadful picture!" Still there was content in the voice. "I remember the night, and the rain, and the wind; but I did not think you noticed it, or cared whether it touched me or not. Carrie said I offended you that evening."
"Poor Carrie! It is difficult to conceive of a young lady making less of life than she is doing."
"How is it with Ben? He is getting on well, is he not?"
"Splendidly! The dear fellow! I saw him last night. Some memory of old times came over us, and he spoke of that very evening; said he should have reason to remember it forever; though it was words spoken on the first day of your coming, during the walk up from the depot, he said, which set him to thinking."
"No one ever acted less as though he were thinking! I was sure that he was simply amused with me, as a little country dunce. Many a time he helped to make it hard for me."
"I presume so; trying the temper of the steel. Ben is developing well. He is the chief dependence of the young men's meeting in his church; and he has a great deal of influence over the boys younger than himself. Fenton tells me that he has about broken up the card-parties which used to be so fashionable in that set; not by any aggressive measures, you know—just a steady, quiet influence.
"'Clean hands,' he said to me last night. 'That is my motto, Freem.' And there were tears in the dear fellow's eyes. You did good work in the field during that one week, little Elsie. Went into the enemy's ranks and captured right and left."