And, like the
digger, she shrank from that civilization which had only proved a hard
taskmaster.
The sole touch of human interest she had in her surroundings was in the
rare visits of the doctor and his brief but sincere commendation of
her rude and rustic work. It is possible that the strange, middle-aged,
gray-haired, intellectual man, whose very language was at times
mysterious and unintelligible to her, and whose suggestion of power awed
her, might have touched some untried filial chord in her being. Although
she felt that, save for absolute freedom, she was little more to him
than she had been to her father, yet he had never told her she had
"no sense," that she was "a hindrance," and he had even praised her
performance of her duties. Eagerly as she looked for his coming, in
his actual presence she felt a singular uneasiness of which she was not
entirely ashamed, and if she was relieved at his departure, it none
the less left her to a delightful memory of him, a warm sense of his
approval, and a fierce ambition to be worthy of it, for which she would
have sacrificed herself or the other miserable retainers about her, as a
matter of course.
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