Her husband tried to think of some comforting
thing to say, and presently came out with this:
"But after all, Mary, it must be for the best--it must be; we know that.
And we must remember that it was so ordered--"
"Ordered! Oh, everything's ORDERED, when a person has to find some way
out when he has been stupid. Just the same, it was ORDERED that the money
should come to us in this special way, and it was you that must take it
on yourself to go meddling with the designs of Providence--and who gave
you the right? It was wicked, that is what it was--just blasphemous
presumption, and no more becoming to a meek and humble professor of--"
"But, Mary, you know how we have been trained all our lives long, like
the whole village, till it is absolutely second nature to us to stop not
a single moment to think when there's an honest thing to be done--"
"Oh, I know it, I know it--it's been one everlasting training and
training and training in honesty--honesty shielded, from the very cradle,
against every possible temptation, and so it's ARTIFICIAL honesty, and
weak as water when temptation comes, as we have seen this night.
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