FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  
mechanically as it seemed, the words of the chant. "Wounded--for our transgressions; and bruised,"--muttering, after a while,--"Yet we hid our faces." Bruised and wounded! The sound of the words attracted her; she said them over and over. She knew who He was. Many years ago she had heard of him; it was a great while since then; she had almost forgotten it. Was it true? And was he perhaps,--was there a little chance it meant, he was bruised for her,--for _her_? She began to wonder dimly, still muttering the sorrowful words down in her corner, where no one could hear her. I wonder if He heard them. Do you think he did? For when the sermon was ended, and the choir sang again,--still of him, and how he called the heavy-laden, and how he kept his own rest for them, she said,--for was she not very weary and heavy-laden with her sins?--still crouching down in her corner, "That's me. I guess it is. I'll find out." She fixed her eyes upon the preacher, thinking, in her stunted, childish way, that he knew so much, so many things she did not understand, that surely he could tell her,--she should like to have it to think about; she would ask him. She rose instinctively with the audience to receive his blessing, then waited in her hooded cloak, like some dark and evil thing, among the brilliant crowd. The door opening, as they began to pass out by her, swept in such a chill of air as brought back a spasm of coughing. She stood quivering under it, her face livid with the pain. The crowd began to look at her curiously, to nod and whisper among themselves. The sexton stepped up nervously; he knew who she was. "Meg, you'd better go. What are you standing here for?" She flung him a look out of her hard, defiant eyes; she made no answer. A child, clinging to her mother's hand, looked up as she went by, pity and fear in her great wondering eyes. "Mother, see that poor woman; she's hungry or cold!" The little one put her hand over the slip, pulling at Meg's cloak, "What's the matter with you? Why don't you go home?" "Bertha, child, are you crazy?" Her mother caught her quickly away. "Don't touch that woman!" Meg heard it. Standing, a moment after, just at the edge of the aisle, a lady, clad in velvet, brushed against her, then gathered her costly garments with a hand ringed and dazzling with diamonds, shrinking as if she had touched some accursed thing, and sweeping by. Meg's eyes froze at that. This was the sanctuary
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
corner
 

mother

 

bruised

 
muttering
 
defiant
 
clinging
 

answer

 

stepped

 

coughing

 

sexton


quivering
 
looked
 

whisper

 

nervously

 

standing

 

curiously

 

pulling

 

velvet

 

moment

 

Standing


brushed
 

dazzling

 

diamonds

 
shrinking
 

touched

 
ringed
 
garments
 

sweeping

 

accursed

 

gathered


costly

 

quickly

 
hungry
 
Mother
 

sanctuary

 
wondering
 

caught

 

Bertha

 

brought

 

matter


understand

 

sorrowful

 
chance
 

sermon

 
called
 
transgressions
 

Wounded

 

mechanically

 
Bruised
 

wounded