She is very sensitive about
their straitened circumstances; you may have heard that they were
quite well-to-do until the stroke of paralysis rendered her father
helpless. All their means were exhausted in efforts to restore his
health, and in the employment of nurses and physicians. I think they
have found life a difficult problem since his death, as Mrs Irving
has been under medical care constantly, and the whole burden falls on
Miss Joy's young shoulders, and she is but twenty-one."
"Just the age of Alice," mused the Baroness. "How differently
people's lives are ordered in this world! But then we must have the
hewers of wood and the drawers of water, and we must have the
delicate human flowers. Our Alice is one of the latter, a frail
blossom to look upon, but she is one of the kind which will bloom out
in great splendour under the sunshine of love and happiness. Very
few people realise what wonderful reserve force that delicate child
possesses. And such a tender heart! She was determined to come with
me when she heard of Miss Irving's trouble, but I thought it unwise
to take her until I had seen the place. She is so sensitive to her
surroundings, and it might be too painful for her. I am for ever
holding her back from overtaxing herself for others. No one dreams
of the amount of good that girl does in a secret, quiet way; and at
the same time she assumes an indifferent air and talks as if she were
quite heartless, just to hinder people from suspecting her charitable
work.
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