Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/86

 away from us; still, I can say with a clear conscience, that I and all of us wish you success and every blessing in the responsible work you have chosen. It is naturally rather difficult for us, who have always lived entirely in the society of our own cultivated class, to grasp thoroughly the possibility of any close or profitable companionship between people of such different circumstances and education; as, for example, you and the people among whom you have chosen to live. I do not deny that satisfactory intellectual intercourse—of course outside strictly religious ground—has always been to me an unsolved riddle. Perhaps this lies in my ignorance of the real conditions, and I only repeat that our best wishes follow you in your work."

Emanuel read this last part twice slowly through—and during the reading a darkening shadow spread over his face. Then the hand with the letter sank slowly on to his knee, and he remained motionless in this position, with his eyes fixed on the floor.

Suddenly he started up, and began striding up and down the room. He could not—he would not believe that his father and the others were right—that all his bright dreams were mere chimeras!—and yet, and yet! was it not this same gnawing doubt which tormented him now? Had he not in his innermost heart begun to lose faith, in at any rate possessing the powers to succeed in this vocation? He knew that he had tried with all