Ask the creature
herself if all I've said of her isn't true. She can't deny it."
With the same indefinable misgiving which had held her aloof,
Christie turned to Rachel, lifted up the hidden face with gentle
force, and looked into it imploringly, as she whispered: "Is it
true?"
The woful countenance she saw made any other answer needless.
Involuntarily her hands fell away, and she hid her own face,
uttering the one reproach, which, tender and tearful though it was,
seemed harder to be borne than the stern condemnation gone before.
"Oh, Rachel, I so loved and trusted you!"
The grief, affection, and regret that trembled in her voice roused
Rachel from her state of passive endurance and gave her courage to
plead for herself. But it was Christie whom she addressed, Christie
whose pardon she implored, Christie's sorrowful reproach that she
most keenly felt.
"Yes, it is true," she said, looking only at the woman who had been
the first to befriend and now was the last to desert her. "It is
true that I once went astray, but God knows I have repented; that
for years I've tried to be an honest girl again, and that but for
His help I should be a far sadder creature than I am this day.
Pages:
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166