She
believed there was more hope of Mr. Redmain even. For had she not
once, for one brief moment, seen him look a trifle ashamed of
himself? while Hesper was and remained, so far as she could
judge, altogether satisfied with herself. Equal to her own
demands upon herself, there was nothing in her to begin with--no
soil to work upon.
CHAPTER XLVII.
ANOTHER CHANGE.
For some time Tom made progress toward health, and was able to
read a good part of the day. Most evenings he asked Joseph to
play to him for a while; he was fond of music, and fonder still
of criticism--upon anything. When he had done with Joseph, or
when he did not want him, Mary was always ready to give the
latter a lesson; and, had he been a less gifted man than he was,
he could not have failed to make progress with such a teacher.
The large-hearted, delicate-souled woman felt nothing strange in
the presence of the workingman, but, on the contrary, was
comfortably aware of a being like her own, less privileged but
more gifted, whose nearness was strength. And no teacher, not to
say no woman, could have failed to be pleased at the thorough
painstaking with which he followed the slightest of her hints,
and the delight his flushed face would reveal when she praised
the success he had achieved.
It was not long before he began to write some of the things that
came into his mind.
Pages:
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522