It is impossible for you to know what a black gulf
opened at my feet when my noble husband was killed early in the war.
Such things, happily, are known only by experience, and many escape.
Then our cause demanded my only son. I face death with him in every
battle, every danger. He takes risks without a thought of fear, and
I dare not let him know the agony of my fear. Yet in my widowhood,
in the sore pressure of care and difficulty in managing a large
plantation in these times, I have found my faith in God's love
adequate to my need. I should still find it so if I lost my boy. I
could not escape the suffering, but I would not sorrow as without
hope."
"How much I would give for the certainty of such a faith!" said Miss
Lou sadly. "Sometimes, since Captain Hanfield died, I think I feel
it. And then--oh, I don't know. Things might happen which I couldn't
meet in your spirit. If I had been compelled to marry my cousin I
feel that I should have become hard, bitter and reckless."
"You poor, dear little girl! Well, you were not compelled to marry
him.
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