Part 54 (1/2)
”And perhaps not always friendly.”
”Oh, no, my people are as varied as those in real life, and possess the warmest love and the most bitter hatred.”
”But there is a charming feature about the surrounding objects. You have them completely under your control.”
”Yes, for though they are extremely ill-disposed, they dare not be rebellious.”
”Miss Elsworth, I have often thought that it must be a very happy life that you lead.”
”Why?”
”You always look happy.”
”Do you always judge from appearances?”
”No, for I know that there are those who can cover an aching heart with a smiling face.”
”That is true, and I believe there is a skeleton in every closet, either great or small.”
Ross looked at the lovely face, and wondered where there could be a skeleton for her. She had never appeared to have a heartache, but he noticed that at times there was a longing look in her beautiful eyes, as if she were not quite satisfied with life, though she had never uttered the word that said she was not entirely happy.
”There are those who can keep the skeleton so securely hidden that you would never know it existed, and I often think of what a vast amount of self-control it must require to bury the secrets of some heart-sorrow,” said Ross.
”Yes,” she answered, ”self-control and patient endurance. I have known those whom I would give the world to be like, just because they possessed the fort.i.tude to crush down and bury their heartaches.”
”I should judge that you possessed that faculty, if you had any to bury.”
”I? No, I wish I did. There is a hungry feeling so often comes up in my heart that I almost cry out in despair, though my sorrows are nothing compared to many another.”
”There are some sorrows that never can be crushed--that will exist while life lasts.”
”Yes,” she answered, looking up at the soft twilight sky, with a face full of tender emotion, ”and G.o.d pity those who are helpless.”
”There is a skeleton in our home that can never be removed, a disgrace which can never be blotted out, and I have sworn to have revenge on the villain who threw the dark shadow over our lives.”
”Revenge can avail you nothing, and might bring still greater misery upon you,” said Miss Elsworth.
”That is true, but you cannot realize how hard it is to crush down a bitter feeling toward one who has injured you.”
”Perhaps not, but this I know, that the hardest battles are fought with our own hearts.”
”That is true, and the man who ruleth his own spirit is mightier than the one who taketh a city. Had the enemy captured us in any other way, I might have been more easily reconciled, but Bessie was our idol, the pride of our home, and she was the baby, too, you know.”
Blanche looked on the fine face of Ross with a heart full of pity, and the tears shone on her long, dark lashes, as she said:
”Mr. Graves, I sympathize with you, and I wish I might help to lift the dark shadow that is hanging over your life, and if there is any way that I can make Bessie, or any other member of your family happier, I am more than willing to do so, if you will only tell me how it may be done.”
”Oh, Miss Elsworth, how much happier you could make my home if you would. Your presence would make bright the shadows which lie around my door. Your presence would make a paradise where otherwise would be the loneliest, most barren desert.”
”Please, Mr. Graves, do not talk to me in that way. I am not capable of brightening any life any further than to do my duty to mankind by helping where I can.”