She became suddenly quiet, and, interrupted only by an
occasional sob, poured out her whole story, if not quite unbrokenly, at
least without actual intermission, while her master stood and listened
without a break in his fixed attention. By-and-by, however, a slow smile
began to dawn on his countenance, which spread and spread until at
length he burst into a laugh, none the less merry that it was low and
evidently restrained lest it should be overheard. Like one suddenly made
ashamed, Annie rose to her feet, but still held out the note to her
master.
How was it possible that her evil deed should provoke her master to a
fit of laughter? It might be easy for him in his goodness to pardon her,
but how could he treat her offense as a thing of no consequence? Was it
not a sin, which, like every other sin, could nowise at all be cleansed?
For even God himself could not blot out the fact that she had done the
deed! And yet, there stood her master laughing! And, what was more
dreadful still, despite the resentment of her conscience, her master's
merriment so far affected herself that she could not repress a
responsive smile! It was no less than indecent, and yet, even in that
answering smile, her misery of six months' duration passed totally away,
melted from her like a mist of the morning, so that she could not even
recall the feeling of her lost unhappiness. But, might not her
conscience be going to sleep? Was it not possible she might be growing
indifferent to right and wrong? Was she not aware in herself that there
were powers of evil about her, seeking to lead her astray, and putting
strange and horrid things in her mind?
But, although he laughed, her master uttered no articulate sound until
she had ended her statement, by which time his amusement had changed to
admiration.
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