Kennedy had, the very last Sunday,
expounded the passage, "Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor."
Right was right, whatever soft-hearted people might say or think. Anyone
might give what was his own, but who could be right in giving away what
was another's? It was time she had done it without thinking; but she had
known, or might have known, well enough that to whomsoever it might
belong, it was not hers. And now what possibility was there of setting
right what she had set wrong? It was just possible a day might come when
she should be able to restore what she had unjustly taken, but at the
present moment it was as impossible for her to lay her hand upon a
pound-note as upon a million. And, terrible thought!--she might have to
enter the presence of her father--dead, men called him, but alive she
knew him--with the consciousness that she had not brought him back the
honor he had left with her.
It will, of course, suggest itself to every reader that herein she was
driving her sense of obligation to the verge of foolishness; and,
indeed, the thought did not fail to occur even to herself; but the
answer of the self-accusing spirit was that had she been thoroughly
upright in heart, she would at once have gone to the nearest house and
made such inquiry as must instantly have resulted in the discovery of
what had happened. This she had omitted--without thought, it is true,
but not, therefore, without blame; and now, so far as she could tell,
she would never be able to make restitution! Had she even told her
mother what befallen her, her mother might have thought of the way in
which it had come to pass, and set her feet in the path of her duty! But
she had made evil haste, and had compassed too much.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25