The past, with its
opportunities, has gone, and the remnant of earthly life offers
such a dismal prospect, and they find themselves so shut up to
a certain lot, so shackled by the very conditions in which they
exist, that they are disheartened. It is hard for many of us not
to feel that we have been utterly defeated and so sink into fatal
apathy."
Mr. Mayhew, who had been coldly impassive and resolutely taciturn
thus far, now leaned back in his chair, and his eyes glowed like
two lamps from beneath the eaves of his shaggy brows. A young and
lovely woman was giving voice to his own crushed and ill-starred
nature; and strange to say, she identified herself with the class
for which she spoke. in the depths of his heart he bowed down,
reverenced, and thanked her for claiming this kinship to himself,
even thought he knew it must be misfortune and not wrong that had
marred her life.
If Van Berg had not been so preoccupied with the speaker, he would
have seen that the daughter also was hanging on the lips that were
expressing simply and eloquently the thoughts with which her own
heavy heart was burdened. But when the artist began to speak,
Ida's face grew paler than ever as she saw the glow of admiration
and sympathy that lighted up his features.
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