ds stood quite passive and suffered herself to be undressed
as a little child. Molly unlaced her shoes. Molly brought cool
water in a basin, bathed her face and hands, braided her hair--the
masses of red-brown hair she had been used to admire and caress,
passing a hand over them as tenderly as of old; then knelt and washed
the tired feet, and wiped them, feeling the arch of the instep with
her bare hand and chafing them to make sure they were dry--so cold
they were.

"Won't you say your prayers, dear?"

Hetty shook her head.

"Then at least you shall kneel by me, and I will pray for both."

Molly's arm was about her. She obeyed and with her waist so
encircled knelt by the bed. And twice Molly, not interrupting her
prayer, pressed the waist close to her side, and once lifted her lips
and kissed the side of the brow.

They arose at length, the one confirmed now and made almost fearless
by saintliness and love. But the other, creeping first into the
narrow bed, shrank away towards the wall and lay with her eyes fixed
on it and staring.

"No, darling," whispered Molly, "when you were strong and I was weak
you used to comfort me. I am the strong one now, and you shall not
escape me so!"

And so it was. Her feeble arms had suddenly become strong.
They slid, the one beneath Hetty's shoulder, the other across and
below her bosom, and straining, not to be denied, they forced her
round. Wide-eyed still, Hetty gazed up into eyes dark in the
moonlight, but conquering her, piercing through all secrets. Her own
brimmed suddenly with tears and she lay quiet, her soul naked beneath
Molly's soul.

"Ay, let them come--let them come while I hold you!"

While Hetty lay, neither winking nor moving, the big drops
overbrimmed at the corners of each eye and trickled on the pillow.
As one fell, another gathered. Silent, unchecked, they flowed, and
Molly bent and watched them flowing.

"A little while--a little while!" moaned Hetty.

"I will hold you so for ever."

"No--yet a little while, though you know not what you are holding."

"Were it a thousand times worse than I think, I am holding my
sister."

"To-morrow--"

"We will bear it together." Molly smiled, but very faintly.
"You forget that I shall never marry--that I shall always need you to
care for. All my life till now you have protected me: now I shall
pay back what I owe."

"Ah, you think I fear father? Molly, I do not fear father at all.
I fear mysel