Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/462

Rh his great opportunity. Even now that the opportunity had come, and all obstacles were levelled, sympathy with his work was as much lacking as ever; and only Duplain, at length reinstated as manager, really understood and shared in his aims. But Justine Brent’s sympathy was of a different kind from the manager’s. If less logical, it was warmer, more penetrating—like some ﬁne imponderable ﬂuid, so subtle that it could always ﬁnd a way through the clumsy processes of human intercourse. Amherst had thought very often of this quality in her during the weeks which followed his abrupt departure for Georgia; and in trying to deﬁne it he had said to himself that she felt with her brain.

And now, aside from the instinctive understanding between them, she was set apart in his thoughts by her association with his wife’s last days. On his arrival from the south he had gathered on all sides evidences of her tender devotion to Bessy: even Mr. Tredegar’s chary praise swelled the general commendation. From the surgeons he heard how her unwearied skill had helped them in their fruitless efforts; poor Cicely, awed by her loss, clung to her mother’s friend with childish tenacity; and the young rector of Saint Anne’s, shyly acquitting himself of his visit of condolence, dwelt chieﬂy on the consolatory thought of Miss Brent’s presence at the death-bed. [ 446 ]