He added, and his heart was revealed in the tone:
"_You_ do not know what it is to be shut out from all that is good on
earth."
There came no answer; in a moment he lifted his eyes to see what
response she gave, and he was astonished to detect a look upon her face
that would have become an angel who had received some fresh beatitude.
It was plain that now she saw and believed the truth of his love; it
appeared, too, that she felt it to be a blessing. He could not
understand this, but she wasted no words in explanation. When her eyes
met his, the joy in her face passed into pity for a minute; she looked
at him quietly and frankly; then she said:
"Love is good in itself, and suffering is good, and God is good. I
think," she added very simply, as a child might have done, "that you
are good, too. Do not fear or be discouraged."
Then, with her own hand, she gently disengaged his from the bridle and
rode up the hill on her errand of mercy.
CHAPTER IV.
HOPE BORN OF SPRING.
"Love is good; suffering is good; God is good"--that was what she had
answered him when he had said that for her sake he was shut out from all
that was good on earth. His heart did not rebel so bitterly against this
answer as it would have done if he had not felt assured that she spoke
of what she had experienced, and that his present experience was in some
sort a comradeship with her.
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