You were paid Saturday night, so nothing prevents your
leaving at once. Time is money here, and we are wasting it. Young
ladies, take your seats."
All but Christie obeyed, yet no one touched a needle, and Mrs. King
sat, hurriedly stabbing pins into the fat cushion on her breast, as
if testing the hardness of her heart.
Rachel's eye went round the room; saw pity, aversion, or contempt,
on every face, but met no answering glance, for even Christie's eyes
were bent thoughtfully on the ground, and Christie's heart seemed
closed against her. As she looked her whole manner changed; her
tears ceased to fall, her face grew hard, and a reckless mood seemed
to take possession of her, as if finding herself deserted by
womankind, she would desert her own womanhood.
"I might have known it would be so," she said abruptly, with a
bitter smile, sadder to see than her most hopeless tears. "It's no
use for such as me to try; better go back to the old life, for there
are kinder hearts among the sinners than among the saints, and no
one can live without a bit of love. Your Magdalen Asylums are
penitentiaries, not homes; I won't go to any of them. Your piety
isn't worth much, for though you read in your Bible how the Lord
treated a poor soul like me, yet when I stretch out my hand to you
for help, not one of all you virtuous, Christian women dare take it
and keep me from a life that's worse than hell.
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