"Nonsense: perhaps in ten years' time you will be looking back on
this trial as a very light one--who knows?"
"I daresay it seems foolish; perhaps all our earthly trials will
appear foolish to us after a while; perhaps they seem so now to
angels. But we are ourselves, you know, and this is _now_, not some
time to come, a long, long way off. And we are not angels, to be
comforted by seeing the ends for which everything is sent."
She had never spoken so long a sentence to him before; and when she
had said it, though she did not take her eyes away from his, as they
stood steadily looking at each other, she blushed a little; she could
not have told why. Nor did he tell himself why a sudden pleasure came
over him as he gazed at her simple expressive face--and for a moment
lost the sense of what she was saying, in the sensation of pity for
her sad earnestness. In an instant more he was himself again. Only
it is pleasant to the wisest, most reasonable youth of one or two
and twenty to find himself looked up to as a Mentor by a girl of
seventeen.
"I know, I understand. Yes: it is _now_ we have to do with. Don't let
us go into metaphysics." Molly opened her eyes wide at this. Had she
been talking metaphysics without knowing it? "One looks forward to
a mass of trials, which will only have to be encountered one by one,
little by little. Oh, here is my mother! she will tell you better
than I can."
And the _tête-à-tête_ was merged in a trio. Mrs. Hamley lay down; she
had not been well all day--she had missed Molly, she said,--and now
she wanted to hear of all the adventures that had occurred to the
girl at the Towers. Molly sate on a stool close to the head of the
sofa, and Roger, though at first he took up a book and tried to read
that he might be no restraint, soon found his reading all a pretence:
it was so interesting to listen to Molly's little narrative, and,
besides, if he could give her any help in her time of need, was it
not his duty to make himself acquainted with all the circumstances of
her case?
And so they went on during all the remaining time of Molly's stay
at Hamley. Mrs. Hamley sympathized, and liked to hear details; as
the French say, her sympathy was given _en détail_, the Squire's
_en gros_. He was very sorry for her evident grief, and almost felt
guilty, as if he had had a share in bringing it about, by the mention
he had made of the possibility of Mr. Gibson's marrying again, when
first Molly came on her visit to them. He said to his wife more than
once,--