I felt you were
that one, and so I appealed to you in this matter about Marah Adams."
Joy's eyes were full of tears. "You must know more of human nature
than I do," she said, "but I hate terribly to think you are right in
this estimate of the people of your congregation. I will go and see
what I can do for this girl to-morrow. Poor child, poor mother, to
pass through a second Gethsemane for her sin. I think any girl or
boy whose home life is shadowed, is to be pitied. I have always had
such a happy home, and such dear parents, the world would seem
insupportable, I am sure, were I to face it without that background.
Dear papa's death was a great blow, and mother's ill health has been
a sorrow, but we have always been so happy and harmonious, and that,
I think, is worth more than a fortune to a child. Poor, poor Marah--
unable to respect her mother, what a terrible thing it all is!"
"Yes, it is a sad affair. I cannot help thinking it would have been
a pardonable lie if Miss Adams had denied the truth when the girl
confronted her with the story. It is the one situation in life where
a lie is excusable, I think. It would have saved this poor girl no
end of sorrow, and it could not have added much to the mother's
burden. I think lying must have originated with an erring woman.
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