"
Her brother believed nothing of her slow declension in strength,
ascribing all the change he saw to the bitter cold, and seeing but
little even of that alteration, though he spent many hours in her
room, holding her in his arms, amusing her, or talking to her and to
Christina. All Christina's fear of him was gone. As long as there
was no liquor in the house, and he was his true self, she felt him to
be a kind friend, bound to her by strong sympathy in the love and
care for his sister. She could talk almost as freely before him as
when alone with her young lady; and as Ermentrude's religious
feelings grew stronger, and were freely expressed to him, surely his
attention was not merely kindness and patience with the sufferer.
The girl's soul ripened rapidly under the new influences during her
bodily decay; and, as the days lengthened, and the stern hold of
winter relaxed upon the mountains, Christina looked with strange
admiration upon the expression that had dawned upon the features once
so vacant and dull, and listened with the more depth of reverence to
the sweet words of faith, hope and love, because she felt that a
higher, deeper teaching than she could give must have come to mould
the spirit for the new world to which it was hastening.
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