'
--"You see," he went on, "that if there be no God, Christ can only
be the first of men."
"I understand," said Mary.
"Do you really then, Mary?" said Letty, looking at her with
wondering admiration.
"I only meant," answered Mary--"but," she went on, interrupting
herself, "I do think I understand it a little. If Mr. Wardour
would be kind enough to read it through again!"
"With much pleasure," answered Godfrey, casting on her a glance
of pleased surprise.
The second reading affected Mary more than the first--because, of
course, she took in more. And this time a glimmer of meaning
broke on the slower mind of Letty: as her cousin read the
passage, "Oh, then came, fearful for the heart, the dead Children
who had been awakened in the Churchyard, into the temple, and
cast themselves before the high Form on the Altar, and said,
'Jesus, have we no Father?' And he answered, with streaming
tears: 'We are all orphans, I and you; we are without Father!'"--
at this point Letty gave her little cry, then bit her lip, as if
she had said something wrong.
All the time a great bee kept buzzing in and out of the arbor,
and Mary vaguely wondered how it could be so careless.
"I can't be dead stupid after all, Cousin Godfrey," said Letty,
with broken voice, when once more he ceased, and, as she spoke,
she pressed her hand on her heart, "for something kept going
through and through me; but I can not say yet I understand it.
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