She
almost envied Linnet because she had had Marjorie.
The fire was glowing in the airtight when she ran into the chamber, there
was a faint light in the east, but the room was so dark that she just
discerned Prue's curls close to the dark head on the pillow and the
little hand that was touching Miss Prudence's cheek.
"This is the law of compensation," she thought as she busied herself in
dressing; "one has found a mother and the other a little girl! It isn't
quite like the old lady who said that when she had nothing to eat she had
no appetite! I wonder if Miss Prudence has _all_ her compensations!"
She stepped noiselessly over the stairs, opened the back parlor door, and
by the dim light found a match and lighted the lamp on the centre table.
Last night had come again. The face of the clock was the only reminder
she had left the room, the face of the clock and a certain alertness
within herself. As she settled herself near the register and took the
astronomy from the pile her eye fell on her Bible, it was on the table
where Morris had laid it last night. Miss Prudence's words came to her,
warningly. Must she also give the fresh hour of her morning to God? The
tempting astronomy was open in her hand at the chapter _Via Lactea._
She glanced at it and read half a page, then dropped it suddenly and
reached forward for the Bible. She was afraid her thoughts would wander
to the unlearned lesson: in such a frame of mind, would it be an
acceptable offering? But who was accountable for her frame of mind? She
wavered no longer, with a little prayer that she might understand and
enjoy she opened to Malachi, and, reverently and thoughtfully, with no
feeling of being hurried, read the first and second chapters.
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