Surely it doesnt make you any happier to go
aboutquaking in fear of Hell fire? She had been saying that if death ends all,then
there is no hope and no meaning in anything. What made you take it into your head to
run away like that?
I dont believe in it any longer, if thats what you
mean. A bitlate in the day, perhaps, but better late than never. I shall go on with
it, justthe same as before. At any rate, Mrs Semprills in disgrace, and so all
thepeople shes slandered must be martyrs. Dorothy put her arms round his neck and
touched his silver-palecheek with her lips. Things change in your mind, she
repeated.
And my income is only seven hundred a
year.
I hope seven devils havent entered into youinstead?
A few months ago she was foolish enough to put some of it inwriting.
Dorothy hardly spoke for the firsthalf-hour of the
journey. Let me put it to you, he said, in the form of a bargain. You stick to the
Christianscheme of things, but you leave Paradise out of it. Dorothy put her arms
round his neck and touched his silver-palecheek with her lips. Ye OldeTea Shoppe was
enlarging its premises, to the further disfigurementof the High Street.
Her mind struggled with the problem, while
perceiving that therewas no solution. Have youreally considered what your future
will be like if you dontmarry?
Not much that was of interest had happened in the
town. Dorothy sat silent and listening with intent and
horrifiedfascination.
And it wasnt thatId reasoned it out; it just
happened to me. Her mind struggled with the problem, while perceiving that therewas
no solution. In these country placestheres always a certain amount of suspicion
knocking about. Youve got rid of a load of superstitious rubbish, and you ought tobe
glad of it.
Thats what youll become, what you mustbecome,
however much you foresee it and try to avoid it. I though you would have seen
something about it in the newspapers. Somehow, Dorothy never believed that they
would succeed in gettingher box from Mrs Creevy. It is the things that happen in
yourheart that matter. It was the kind of thing that you pious people would
ascribeto the finger of Providence. But let me put the business side of it first.
The little I had passed away quite painlessly at the age of nine.
Youre a little toofond of that depressing word
useful. I dont see that it makes any difference, she said finally.
A few months ago, all of asudden, it seemed as if
my whole mind had changed.
Mr Warburton, with his head cocked a little on one
side, gaveDorothy a rather curious look.
In these country placestheres always a certain
amount of suspicion knocking about. And then the whole world changes,because you
look at it differently.
The point is that all the beliefs I had are gone,
and Ive nothingto put in their place.