That is too elaborately put. I mean that Leonora, if everything had
prospered, might have become too hard and, maybe, overbearing.
As it was she was tuned down to appearing efficient--and yet
sympathetic. That is the rarest of all blends. And yet I swear that
Leonora, in her restrained way, gave the impression of being
intensely sympathetic. When she listened to you she appeared also
to be listening to some sound that was going on in the distance.
But still, she listened to you and took in what you said, which,
since the record of humanity is a record of sorrows, was, as a rule,
something sad.
I think that she must have taken Nancy through many terrors of the
night and many bad places of the day. And that would account for
the girl's passionate love for the elder woman. For Nancy's love
for Leonora was an admiration that is awakened in Catholics by
their feeling for the Virgin Mary and for various of the saints. It is
too little to say that the girl would have laid her life at Leonora's
feet. Well, she laid there the offer of her virtue--and her reason.
Those were sufficient instalments of her life. It would today be
much better for Nancy Rufford if she were dead.
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