"
So little by little Joy drew the story from Mrs Connor and learned
the name of the mysterious father, so carefully guarded from her in
Mrs Irving's manuscript, the father at whose funeral services she had
so recently officiated as organist.
And strangest and most startling of all, she learned that Arthur
Stuart's insane wife was her half-sister.
Added to all this, Joy was made aware of the nature of the reports
which the Baroness had been circulating about her; and her feeling of
bitter resentment and anger toward the church committee was modified
by the knowledge that it was not owing to the shadow on her birth,
but to the false report of her own evil life, that she had been asked
to resign.
After Mrs Connor had gone, Joy was for a long time in meditation, and
then turned in a mechanical manner to her delayed task. Her book of
"Impressions" lay on a table close at hand.
And as she took it up the leaves opened to the sentence she had
written three years before, after her talk with the rector about
Marah Adams.
"It seems to me I could not love a man who did not seek to lead me
higher; the moment he stood below me and asked me to descend, I
should realise he was to be pitied, not adored!"
She shut the book and fell on her knees in prayer; and as she prayed
a strange thing happened.
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