THE BACKSLIDING
gentler, your mind was more religiously inclined. I found you"
"You didn't find me pestered t' death," said Harriet briefly, somewhat mollified by his "Miss Blake."
"I was led to believe that you were suffering, that you were in trouble," hazarded the pastor.
Never in his somewhat self-sufficient life had he felt such difficulty in giving spiritual advice. Even to his thick-skinned personality it was deeply evident that this sharp-tongued little woman was in great trouble. Ordinarily, a certain facility for quotation and application made him a confident speaker, but to-day he felt impeded, held back by the self-control and patience of his listener. For he saw that she was patient; that she could say much more if she chose; that she was, beneath all her sharpness, alarmed and worried.
His somewhat perplexed air, his evident memory of her earlier estate, his startled recognition of her changed appearance had the effect that
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