But the effort was as
exhausting as painful, and the reflex of shame, felt as shame in
spite of innocence, was eating into her heart. In vain she said to
herself that she was guiltless; in vain she folded herself round in
the cloak of her former composure; the consciousness that, to say
the least of it, she was regarded as a young woman of questionable
refinement, weighed down her very eyelids as she crossed the court.
But she was not left utterly forsaken; she had still one refuge--the
workshop, where Caspar Kaltoff wrought like an 'artificial god;' for
the worthy German altered his manner to her not a whit, but
continued to behave with the mingled kindness of a father and
devotion of a servant. His respect and trustful sympathy showed,
without word said, that he, if no other, believed nothing to her
disadvantage, but was as much her humble friend as ever; and to the
hitherto self-reliant damsel, the blessedness of human sympathy,
embodied in the looks and tones of the hard-handed mechanic, brought
such healing and such schooling together, that for a long time she
never said her prayers by her bedside without thanking God for
Caspar Kaltoff.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242