Hester · Chapter 12 (3/3)

“But I cannot do it!” in tones so painful and so clear that it was a wonder they did not penetrate the wainscotting.

Mrs. Morgan, who had been waiting for a reply, folded her old fingers⁠—worn with the hard usage of life, but now so quiet⁠—into each other, and said, softly⁠—

“That was what I thought.”