king in at the shop-windows, because we
had no money to spare and they tempted us to buy. He went to business in
the morning, and came back at night, and fell asleep after dinner,
and woke up and read prayers--and next day to business and back, and
sleeping and waking and reading prayers--and no break in it, week after
week, month after month, except on Sunday, which was always the same
Sunday; the same church, the same service, the same dinner, the same
book of sermons in the evening. Even when we had a fortnight once a year
at the seaside, we always went to the same place and lodged in the same
cheap house. The few friends we had led just the same lives, and were
beaten down flat by just the same monotony. All the women seemed to
submit to it contentedly except my miserable self. I wanted so little!
Only a change now and then; only a little sympathy when I was weary
and sick at heart; only somebody whom I could love and serve, and be
rewarded with a smile and a kind word in return. Mothers shook their
heads, and daughters laughed at me. Have we time to be sentimental?
Haven't we enough to do, darning and mending, and turning our dresses,
and making the joint last as long as possible, and keeping the children
clean, and doing the washing at home--and tea and sugar rising, and my
husband grumbling every week when I have to ask him for the house-money.
Oh, no more of it! no more of it! People meant for better things all
ground down to the same sordid and selfish level--is that a pleasant
sight to contemplate? I shudder when I think of the last twenty years of
my life!' That's what she complained of, Mr. Hethcote, in the solitary
middle of the lake, with nobody but me to hear her."

"In my country, sir," Rufus remarked, "the Lecture Bureau would have
provided for her amusement, on economical terms. And I reckon, if a
married life would fix her, she might have tried it among Us by way of a
change."

"That's the saddest part of the story," said Amelius. "There came a
time, only two years ago, when her prospects changed for the better. Her
rich aunt (her mother's sister) died; and--what do you think?--left her
a legacy of six thousand pounds. There was a gleam of sunshine in her
life! The poor teacher was an heiress in a small way, with her fortune
at her own disposal. They had something like a festival at home, for the
first time; presents to everybody, and kissings and congratulations,
and new dresses at last. And, more t