The young teacher's countenance fell. It was true; her employment did, in some measure, depend on the good-will of this man.
She choked with the thought, then broke out again.
"The hypocrite! I have seen him at prayer-meetings, and heard him make long prayers and pious speeches."
The mother sighed, and remained silent. She had been wont to check her daughter's somewhat free animadversions, and to make an effort, at least, to defend them of whom Anne said, "Their life laughs through and spits at their creed;" but now the bitter truth came too near.
There was a moment of silence, the children sitting still and awed, the mother waiting despondently, while the fatherless girl, who was the sole dependence of the household, did some rapid brain-work.
"You think he really means it, mother?" she asked, without pausing in her walk.
"Yes, there is no hope. I almost went on my knees to him."
There the widow's self-control broke down suddenly, and, putting her hands over her face, she burst into a passion of tears.
It is a terrible thing to see one's mother cry in that way; to see her, who soothed our childish sorrows, who seemed to us the fountain of all comfort, herself sorrowing, while we have no comfort to give.