"Yes, Samuel; but then her mother came."
"Oh! And what then?"
"She scolded me! She was very angry with me. She said I had no right
to fill the child's mind with falsehoods about her uncle. And she
wouldn't listen to me--she turned me out of the house."
There was a long silence. "I don't think I did any good at all," said
Sophie in a low voice. "We are going to have to do it all by
ourselves."
CHAPTER XXVI
Samuel slept not a wink all that night. First he lay wrestling with
the congregation. And then his thoughts came to Miss Gladys, and what
he was going to say to her. This kindled a fire in his blood, and when
the first streaks of dawn were in the sky, he rose and went out to
walk.
Throughout all these adventures, his feelings had been mingled with
the excitement of his love for her. Samuel hardly knew what to make of
himself. He had never kissed a woman in his life before--but now
desire was awake, and from the deeps of him the most unexpected
emotions came surging, sweeping him away. He was a prey to longings
and terrors. Wild ecstasies came to him, and then followed plunges
into melancholy. He longed to see her, and other things stood in the
way, and he did not know why he should be so tormented.
Just to be in love would have been enough. But to have been given the
love of a being like Miss Gladys--peerless and unapproachable, almost
unimaginable!
After hours of pacing the streets, he called to see her.
Pages:
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215