"
"I cannot help it, Mr. Thorold," I said. "If anybody does
wrong because he is afraid of the consequences of doing right,
he is another sort of a coward — that is all!"
Mr. Thorold laughed, and catching my hand as we came to a turn
in the road where the woods fell away right and left, brought
me quick round the angle, without letting me go to the edge of
the bank to get the view.
"You must not look till you get to the top," he said.
"What an odd road!" I remarked. "It just goes by zigzags."
"The only way to get up at all, without travelling round the
hill. That is, for horses."
It was steep enough for foot wayfarers, but the road was
exceeding comfortable that day. We were under the shade of
trees all the way; and talk never lagged. Mr. Thorold was
infinitely pleasant to me; as well as unlike any one of all my
former acquaintances. There was a wealth of life in him, that
delighted my quieter nature; an amount of animal spirits that
were just a constant little impetus to me; and from the first
I got an impression of strength, such as weakness loves to
have near.
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