‘You are very kind,’ said Mrs Crawley.  ’We must only bear it with such fortitude as God will give us.  We are told that He tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.’

‘And so He does my dear,’ said her ladyship very solemnly.  ’So He does.  Surely you have felt that it is so?’

‘I struggle not to complain,’ said Mrs Crawley.

’I know that you struggle bravely.  I hear of you, and I admire you for it, and I love you.’  It was still the old lady who was speaking and now she had at last been roused out of her difficulty as to words, and had risen from her chair, and was standing before Mrs Crawley.  ’It is because you do not complain, because you are so great and so good, because your character is so high, and your spirit so firm, that I could not resist the temptation of coming to you.  Mrs Crawley, if you will let me be your friend, I shall be proud of your friendship.’

‘Your ladyship is too good,’ said Mrs Crawley.

‘Do not talk to me after that fashion,’ said Lady Lufton.  ’If you do I shall be disappointed, and feel myself thrown back.  You know what I mean.’  She paused for an answer; but Mrs Crawley had no answer to make.  She simply shook her head, not knowing why she did so.  But we may know.  We can understand that she had felt that the friendship offered to her by Lady Lufton was an impossibility.  She had decided within her own breast that it was so, though she did not know that she had come to such decision.  ‘I wish you to take me at my word, Mrs Crawley,’ continued Lady Lufton.  ‘What can we do for you?  We know that you are distressed.’

‘Yes—­we are distressed.’

’And we know how cruel circumstances have been to you.  Will you not forgive me for being plain?’

‘I have nothing to forgive,’ said Mrs Crawley.

‘Lady Lufton means,’ said Mrs Robarts, ’that in asking you to talk openly of your affairs, she wishes you to remember that—­I think you know what I mean,’ said Mrs Robarts, knowing very well herself what she did mean, but not knowing at all how to express herself.

‘Lady Lufton is very kind,’ said Mrs Crawley, ’and so are you, Mrs Robarts.  I know how good you both are, and for how much it behoves me to be grateful.’  These words were very cold, and the voice in which they were spoken were very cold.  They made Lady Lufton feel that it was beyond her power to proceed with the work of her mission in its intended spirit.  It is ever so much easier to proffer kindness graciously than to receive it with grace.  Lady Lufton had intended to say, ’Let us be women together;—­women bound by humanity, and not separated by rank, and let us open our hearts freely.  Let us see how we may be of comfort to each other.’  And could she have succeeded in this, she would have spread out her little plans of succour with so loving a hand that she would have conquered the woman before her.  But the suffering spirit cannot descend from its dignity of reticence.