It was as
though a resolution, from which there could be no appeal, had been
taken, and the person resolving felt her own power to accomplish. It was
altogether an unexpected answer to Mrs. Roberts. She did not know
whether to be half-frightened or to laugh.
She sat down in one of the easy-chairs to study the girl, and consider
what answer to make. Mart, meantime, turned back to the survey of
herself in the mirror, or to the survey of whatever she saw there, and
continued talking:--
"I never knew much about heaven. You may guess that, if you have ever
been in our alley. Only lately, Sallie Calkins she's been telling me
what you told her; and I had a kind of notion that you must know what
you was talking about, and that it was for rich folks and grand folks
like you; but the man told about that Madge, you know, to-night--an
awful drunkard and swearer, and all that--how she reformed and went to
heaven. Dirk ain't no drunkard; but he will be. Everybody says he will,
because father is such an awful one. Mother, she's never had no hope of
him. She says father didn't drink till he was most twenty, and then he
begun; and she's looking for Dirk to begin, and I haven't thought he
could help it either. What if he doesn't care for it much yet? He will,
it's likely.
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