Then at last the real moment came. Miss Avies got up to speak. She
stood there, scornful, superior, and yet with some almost cynical
appeal in her eyes as though she said to them: "You poor fools! No
one knows better than I the folly of your being here, no one knows
better than I how far you will, all of you, be from realising any of
your dreams. Tricked, the lot of you!--and yet--and yet--go on
believing, expecting, hoping. Pray, pray that I may be wrong and you
may be right."
What she actually said was as follows: "This will be our last
meeting before the end of the year. What will come to all of us
before we all meet again no one can say, but this we all know, that
we have, most of us, been living now for many years in expectation.
We have been taught, by the goodness of God, to believe that we must
be ready at any moment to obey His call, and that call may come, in
the middle of our work, of our prayers, of our love for others, of
our pursuit of our own ambitions, and that whenever it does come we
must be ready to obey it. We have been told by our great and good
Master, who has been set over us for our guidance by God Himself,
that that call may now be very near.
Pages:
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496