Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/429

Rh was brought to her, she seemed to have sunk back into herself, as though her poor little ﬂicker of consciousness were wholly centred in the contemplation of its pain. It was not that her mind was clouded—only that it was immersed, absorbed, in that dread mystery of disproportionate anguish which a capricious fate had laid on it.… And what if she recovered, as they called it? If the ﬂood-tide of pain should ebb, leaving her stranded, a helpless wreck on the desert shores of inactivity? What would life be to Bessy without movement? Thought would never set her blood ﬂowing—motion, in her, could only take the form of the physical processes. Her love for Amherst was dead—even if it ﬂickered into life again, it could but put the spark to smouldering discords and resentments; and would her one uncontaminated sentiment—her affection for Cicely—sufﬁce to reconcile her to the desolate half-life which was the utmost that science could hold out?

Here again, Justine’s experience answered no. She did not believe in Bessy’s powers of moral recuperation—her body seemed less near death than her spirit. Life had been poured out to her in generous measure, and she had spilled the precious draught—the few drops remaining in the cup could no longer renew her strength.

Pity, not condemnation—profound illimitable pity—flowed from this conclusion of Justine’s. To a compassionate heart there could be no sadder instance of [ 413 ]