He was at once admitted, for he was
well known to most of them. He found the poor woman miserably recovered
from the effects of her dissipation, and looking so woebegone, that the
heart of the good man was immediately filled with profoundest pity,
recognizing before him a creature whose hope was wasted to the verge of
despair. She neither looked up nor spoke; but what he could see of her face
appeared only ashamed, neither sullen nor vengeful. When he spoke to her,
she lifted her head a little, but not her eyes to his face, confessing
apparently that she had nothing to say for herself; and he saw her plainly
at the point of taking refuge in the Dee. Tenderly, as if to the little
one he had left behind him in bed, he spoke in her scarce listening ear
child-soothing words of almost inarticulate sympathy, which yet his tone
carried where they were meant to go. She lifted her lost eyes at length,
saw his face, and burst into tears.
"Na, na," she cried, through tearing sobs, "ye canna help me, sir! There's
naething 'at you or onybody can dee for me! But I'm near the mou o' the
pit, and God be thankit, I'll be ower the rim o' 't or I hae grutten my
last greit oot!--For God's sake gie me a drink--a drink o' onything!"
"I daurna gie ye onything to ca' drink," answered the minister, who could
scarcely speak for the swelling in his throat.
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