The Woman Considered in Absence 97

awoke and saw her in his room he would pretend,
unless he felt called upon to rage at her for
self-neglect, to be still asleep, and then be filled
with tenderness for her. A great writer has
spoken sadly of the shock it would be to a
mother to know her boy as he really is, but
I think she often knows him better than he is
known to cynical friends. We should be slower
to think that the man at his worst is the real
man, and certain that the better we are ourselves
the less likely is he to be at his worst in our
company. Every time he talks away his own
character before us he is signifying contempt for
ours.

On this morning Margaret only opened Gavin’s
door to stand and look, for she was fearful of
awakening him after his heavy night. Even
before she saw that he still slept she noticed
with surprise that, for the first time since he
came to Thrums, he had put on his shutters.
She concluded that he had done this lest the
light should rouse him. He was not sleeping
pleasantly, for now he put his open hand before
his face, as if to guard himself, and again he
frowned and seemed to draw back from some-
thing. He pointed his finger sternly to the
north, ordering the weavers, his mother thought,
to return to their homes, and then he muttered
to himself so that she heard the words, “ And if
thy right hand offend thee cut it off, and cast it
from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell.’ Then
suddenly he bent forward, his eyes open and