There had been a time
in Godfrey's life when, had she stood before him in all her
splendor, he would have turned from her, because of her history,
with a sad disgust. Was he less pure now? He was more pure, for
he was humbler. When those terrible thoughts would come, and the
darkness about him grow billowy with black flame, "God help me,"
he would cry, "to make the buffeted angel forget the past!"
They had talked of Mary more than once, and Godfrey, in part
through what Hesper told him of her, had come to see that he was
unjust to her. I do not mean he had come to know the depth and
extent of his injustice--that would imply a full understanding of
Mary herself, which was yet far beyond him. A thousand things had
to grow, a thousand things to shift and shake themselves together
in Godfrey's mind, before he could begin to understand one who
cared only for the highest.
Godfrey and Hesper made a glorious pair to look at--but would
theirs be a happy union?--Happy, I dare say--and not too happy.
He who sees to our affairs will see that the _too_ is not in
them. There were fine elements in both, and, if indeed they
loved, and now I think, from very necessity of their two hearts,
they must have loved, then all would, by degrees, by slow
degrees, most likely, come right with them.
If they had been born again both, before they began, so to start
fresh, then like two children hand in hand they might have run in
through the gates into the city.
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