Well,
well! these are not the thoughts for me, though how I can help them
I cannot tell. I will try to win a little respect from him before
we part, and then my life, like this pear-tree, must be full of
good deeds for those who have the best right to receive them," and
taking a small pen-knife from her pocket she mounted the chair, and
carved within the two lower branches where they could not easily
be discovered the words,
"Ida Mayhew."
Chapter XLII. The Corner-Stone of Character.
After the characteristic act by which Ida had identified the
tree--once so bruised and broken--with herself, she sat down again
at its foot and thought long and deeply. The deep hush and quiet
of the quaint old garden was just what she needed after the delirium
of her passion and despair. Her pulse began to grow more even,
and her beautiful face sweet and noble with the better thoughts she
now was entertaining. As she sat there leaning her head against
the bole of the tree, the shadows of the leaves above deepening
and brightening across her pale features, and her large, dark eyes
often growing humid with sympathy with her thoughts, she made as
fair a picture as could Eve herself, were she dreaming over her
lost garden-home.
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