The Shield of Silence by Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock
page 43 of 424 (10%)
page 43 of 424 (10%)
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"How much did Merry tell you?" she asked, faintly, for the older woman looked so frail and pure that it seemed impossible that she knew the worst. "My dear, she told me--nothing. Her letter said that she wanted to tell me things--things that she could not tell to God"--Angela unconsciously touched her cross--"but there was no time. No time." "There are things that women cannot tell to God, Sister. Things that they can only tell to some women!" A bitterness that she could not control shook Doris's voice. She shrank from touching the exquisite detachment of Sister Angela by the truth, and yet she must have as much sympathy as possible and, certainly, coöperation. "Sister, this child should never have been born!" The words reached where former words had failed. A flush touched Angela's white face--it was like sunrise on snow. Then, after a pause: "Did--Meredith--think that?" A growing sternness gave Doris hope that she might be saved the details that were like poison in her blood. "Yes. Protected by--by what is law--George Thornton----" But Angela raised her thin, transparent hand commandingly. It was as if she were staying the torrents of wrong and shame that threatened to deluge all that she had gained by her life of renunciation and |
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