rush of pity. And what I thought was:
You are like me.
I wish I had only thought that and moved on. I wish I had left her. But as
I watched she raised her head, and smiled, and I saw then that she looked
expectant. And then I could not leave her. I gestured to Mrs Jelf, who was
further down the ward; and by the time she had brought her key and opened
the gate, Dawes had put her needles aside and risen to greet me.
Indeed, it was she—once the matron had united us, and fidgeted over us,
and hesitantly left us to our business—who spoke first. She said, ''I''m glad
you''ve come!'' She said that she was sorry not to see me, last time.
I said, last time? ''Oh yes. But you were busy with your school-mistress.''
She tossed her head, ''//er,'' she said. She said they think her quite a
prodigy there, because she is able to remember in the afternoons the lines
of Scripture read to them at chapel, in the morning. She said she wonders
what else they think she has, to fill her empty hours up.
She said, ''I would far rather have spoken with you, Miss Prior. I''m
afraid you were kind to me, when we last talked; and I didn''t deserve it. I
have been wishing, since then— well, you said you came to be my friend.
I don''t have much cause to remember the ways of friendship, here.''
Her words were satisfying ones for me to hear, and made me like and