) 'You know better, and you've no right to give way
to such thoughts. I was going to say I'd come and be with you all
Saturday afternoon, but I don't know whether I shall now. And I'd
been thinking you might like to come and see me on Sunday, but I
can't have people that go to the public-house, so we won't say
anything more about it. I shall have to be off; good-bye!'
She stepped to the door.
'Miss Snowdon!'
Jane turned, and after an instant of mock severity, broke into a
laugh which seemed to fill the wretched den with sunlight. Words,
too, she found; words of soothing influence such as leap from the
heart to the tongue in spite of the heavy thoughts that try to check
them. Pennyloaf was learning to depend upon these words for strength
in her desolation. They did not excite her to much hopefulness, but
there was a sustaining power in their sweet sincerity which made all
the difference between despair tending to evil and the sigh of
renewed effort. 'I don't care,' Pennyloaf had got into the habit of
thinking, after her friend's departure, 'I won't give up as long as
she looks in now and then.'
Out from the swarm of babies Jane hurried homewards.
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