Do this, and her words will soon be
powerless to sting you. Instead of feeling hurt or angry, you will be
inclined to pity her--to pray for her. And she deserves pity, Janet, if
any woman in this sinful world ever did. To have severed of her own
accord those natural ties which other people cherish so fondly; to see
herself fading into a dreary old age, and yet of her own free will to
shut out the love that should attend her by the way and strew flowers on
her path; to have no longer a single earthly hope or pleasure beyond
those connected with each day's narrow needs or with the heaping
together of more money where there was enough before--in all this there
is surely room enough for pity, but none for any harsher feeling."
"Dear Sister Agnes, your words make me thoroughly ashamed of myself,"
said Janet, with tearful earnestness. "Arrogance ill becomes one like me
who have been dependent on the charity of others from the day of my
birth. Whatever task may be set me either by Lady Chillington or by you,
I will do it to the best of my ability. Will you for this once pardon my
petulance and ill-temper, and I will strive not to offend you again?"
"I am not offended, darling; far from it.
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