Newbury--because you love him. If
I lose John who will ever give me a kind word--a kind look again? I thought
at last--I'd found--a little love. Even bad people"--her voice broke--"may
rejoice in that, mayn't they? Christ didn't forbid them that."
Her piteous look hung on her companion. The tears sprang to Marcia's eyes.
Yet her temperament did not tend to easy weeping; and at the root of her
mind in this very moment were feelings of repulsion and of doubt, mingled
with impressions of pity. But the hours at Hoddon Grey had been hours of
deep and transforming emotion; they had left her a more sensitive and
responsive human being.
"I'll do what I can," she said, with slow emphasis. "I promise you that
I'll speak to Mr. Newbury."
Mrs. Betts gave her effusive thanks which somehow jarred on Marcia; she was
glad when they were over and Mrs. Betts rose to go. That her tearful and
disheveled aspect might escape the servants Marcia took her down a side
staircase of the vast house, and piloted her through some garden paths.
Then the girl herself, returning, opened a gate into a wood, where an
undergrowth of wild roses was just breaking into flower, and was soon
pacing a mossy path out of sight and sound of the house.
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