Nor was this the time
for him to reflect that, under his training, Letty, even if he
had married her, would never have grown to such dignity.
It was, indeed, only in that moment she had become capable of the
action. She had been growing as none, not Mary, still less
herself, knew, under the heavy snows of affliction, and this was
her first blossom. Not many of my readers will mistake me, I
trust. Had it been in Letty pride that refused help from such an
old friend, that pride I should count no blossom, but one of the
meanest rags that ever fluttered to scare the birds. But the
dignity of her refusal was in this--that she would accept nothing
in which her husband had and could have no human, that is, no
spiritual share. She had married him because she loved him, and
she would hold by him wherever that might lead her: not wittingly
would she allow the finest edge, even of ancient kindness, to
come between her Tom and herself! To accept from her cousin
Godfrey the help her husband ought to provide her, would be to
let him, however innocently, step into his place! There was no
reasoning in her resolve: it was allied to that spiritual insight
which, in simple natures, and in proportion to their simplicity,
approaches or amounts to prophecy. As the presence of death will
sometimes change even an ordinary man to a prophet, in times of
sore need the childlike nature may well receive a vision
sufficing to direct the doubtful step.
Pages:
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431