United States or Guam ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Don't you think you could walk a little now, just enough to get into the hack with me and go home?" asked the kind woman, in a soothing voice. "Yes, yes," said Edith, eagerly; "let us get away at once." And with Mrs. Groody's and Arden's assistance, she was soon seated in the hack, and was glad to note that there was no other passenger. The ride was a comparatively silent one.
"Leave this dock," said Arden, sternly; "and if I trace any slander to you concerning this lady or myself, I will break every bone in your miserable body." Crowl shrank off amid the jeers of the crowd, but on reaching a safe distance, said, "You will be sorry for this." Arden paid no need to him, for Edith, under Mrs. Groody's treatment, gave signs of returning consciousness.
Edith was too exhausted from her desperate struggle to reach the boat, and her heart was too bruised and sore, to permit on her part much more than monosyllables, in answer to Mrs. Groody's efforts at conversation. But as they stopped at the cottage her new friend said, cheerily: "Don't take it so hard, my child; you ain't to blame. I'll stand by you if no one else will.
Groody, with wild questioning of the future. Her new acquaintance was sniffling and blowing her nose in a manner that betokened serious internal commotion. The driver, who would have hustled any ordinary passenger out quickly enough, waited Mrs. Groody's leisure at a respectful distance. He knew her potential influence at the hotel.
I vowed it the night I lifted your unconscious form from the wharf, and gave you into Mrs. Groody's care. There need be no reply. You have only to treat me not as an utter stranger when we next meet. You have only to give me the joy of doing something for you when opportunity offers. Edith's eyes filled with tears before she finished this most unexpected epistle.
But direct, practical Edith said simply and gently: "In other words, you were laboring and heavy laden." "Couldn't have been more so, and lived," was Mrs. Groody's emphatic answer. "And the memory of it seems to have been a heavy burden on your conscience ever since, though I think you judge yourself harshly," continued Edith. "Not a bit," said Mrs. Groody sturdily, "I knowed better all the time."
Then he caught a glimpse of Edith sewing at the window, and he dropped his eyes instantly. Groody's coarse hotel linen. But Edith had noted his timid, wistful looks, and calling Hannibal, said: "Please give that note to Mr. Lacey. He is just passing toward the village."
The driver stood with his lantern near the door, and its rays fell on Edith's pale face and large, tearful eyes, and she turned, and for the first time tried to see who this kind woman was, that seemed to feel for her. Taking Mrs. Groody's hands, she said, in a voice of tremulous pathos: "God bless you for speaking to me at all. I didn't think any one would again who knew.
Word Of The Day