She would watch over him
tenderly, as the innocent should watch over the guilty; awaiting the
gracious seasons, wherein to pour oil and balm into the bitter
wounds.
With the untroubled peace which the resolve to endure to the end
gives, she approached the house that from habit she still called
home, but which possessed the holiness of home no longer. "Jem!"
said she, as they stood at the entrance to the court, close by Job
Legh's door, "you must go in there and wait half-an-hour. Not less.
If in that time I don't come back, you go your ways to your mother.
Give her my dear love. I will send by Margaret when I want to see
you."
She sighed heavily.
"Mary! Mary! I cannot leave you. You speak as coldly as if we were
to be nought to each other. And my heart's bound up in you. I know
why you bid me keep away, but"--
She put her hand on his arm, as he spoke in a loud agitated tone;
she looked into his face with upbraiding love in her eyes, and then
she said, while her lips quivered, and he felt her whole frame
trembling--
"Dear Jem! I often could have told you more of love, if I had not
once spoken out so free.
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