Knapp with a
shudder. "I am thankful, indeed, to see you with us with no greater
hurt."
Luella said nothing, but the look she gave me set my heart dancing in a
way that all Mrs. Knapp's praise could not.
"I do hope this dreadful business will end soon," said Mrs. Knapp. "Do
you think this might be the last of it?"
"No," said I, remembering the note I had received from the Unknown on
my return, "there's much more to be done."
"I hope you are ready for it," said Mrs. Knapp, with a troubled look
upon her face.
"As ready as I ever shall be, I suppose," I replied. "If the guardian
angel who has pulled me through this far will hold on to his job, I'll
do my part."
Mrs. Knapp raised a melancholy smile, but it disappeared at once, and
she seemed to muse in silence, with no very pleasant thought on her
mind. Twice or thrice I thought she wished to speak to me, but if so
she changed her mind.
I ventured a few observations that were intended to be jocose, but she
answered in the monosyllables of preoccupation, and I turned to Luella.
She gave back flashes of brightness, but I saw on her face the shadow
of her mother's melancholy, and I rose at an early hour to take my
leave.
"I wonder at you," said Luella softly, as we stood alone for a moment.
"You have little cause."
"What you have done is much. You have conquered difficulties."
I looked in her calm eyes, and my soul came to the surface.
"I wish you might be proud of me," I said.
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