Page:Gide - Strait is the Gate.pdf/168

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STRAIT IS THE GATE 166

“No; they are here; but this darning requires a great deal of attention." "Wouldn't you like me to read to you while you are sewing?" “I am afraid I shouldn't be able to listen very well." “Why do you choose such absorbing work to do?” "Some one must do it.” “There are so many poor women who would be glad to do it for the sake of earning a trifle. It can't be from economy that you undertake such a tedious task?" She at once assured me that she liked no other kind of sewing so much, that it was the only kind she had done for a long time past, and that she was doubtless out of practice for doing anything else. She smiled as she spoke. Never had her voice been sweeter than now, when she was so grieving me. “I am saying nothing but what is natural," her face seemed to declare, "why should it make you sad?” And my whole heart's protest no longer even rose to my lips — it choked me.


A day or two later, as we had been picking roses, she invited me to carry them for her to her

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