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A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
page 225 of 460 (48%)
had lived. Six months more would have showed you what everybody else
knew. He was one of those men who couldn't trust himself, and so no
woman was safe with him. Now, will you drop grieving over him, and do
Elnora justice?"

Mrs. Comstock grasped the hoe tighter and turning she went down the
walk, and started across the woods to the home of Elvira Carney. With
averted head she passed the pool, steadily pursuing her way. Elvira
Carney, hanging towels across the back fence, saw her coming and went
toward the gate to meet her. Twenty years she had dreaded that visit.
Since Margaret Sinton had compelled her to produce the violin she had
hidden so long, because she was afraid to destroy it, she had come
closer expectation than dread. The wages of sin are the hardest debts
on earth to pay, and they are always collected at inconvenient times and
unexpected places. Mrs. Comstock's face and hair were so white, that her
dark eyes seemed burned into their setting. Silently she stared at the
woman before her a long time.

"I might have saved myself the trouble of coming," she said at last, "I
see you are guilty as sin!"

"What has Mag Sinton been telling you?" panted the miserable woman,
gripping the fence.

"The truth!" answered Mrs. Comstock succinctly. "Guilt is in every line
of your face, in your eyes, all over your wretched body. If I'd taken a
good look at you any time in all these past years, no doubt I could have
seen it just as plain as I can now. No woman or man can do what you've
done, and not get a mark set on them for every one to read."

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