"Yes, ma'am. You put things very clearly."

"I guess it is because you understand so quickly.
But you were saying ------"

"That's all the story. We took the children, and their
father was killed by the cars the next year, poor man;
and so we have done the best we could ever since by them."

"I should say you had done very well by them."

"No, ma'am; I haven't done very well somehow by anyone, myself included,
though God knows I've tried hard enough!"

Then followed the silence natural after such a confession
when the listener does not know the speaker well enough to parry
abasement by denial.

"I am impressed," said Nelson, simply, "to talk with you frankly.
It isn't polite to bother strangers with your troubles, but I am
impressed that you won't mind."

"Oh, no, I won't mind."

It was not extravagant sympathy; but Nelson thought how kind
her voice sounded, and what a musical voice it was.
Most people would have called it rather sharp.

He told her--with surprisingly little egotism, as the keen
listener noted--the story of his life; the struggle of his boyhood;