Things could not be going well with her.
Had her dress been only disordered, that might have been accidental, but it looked neglected--was not merely dingy, but plainly shabby, and, to Mary's country eyes, appeared on the wrong side of clean.

Presently, as those eyes got accustomed to the miserable light, they spied in the skirt of her gown a perfunctory darn, revealing but too evidently that to Letty there no longer seemed occasion for being particular.

The sadness of it all sunk to Mary's heart: Letty had not found marriage a grand affair! But Mary had not come into the world to be sad or to help another to be sad.

Sorrowful we may often have to be, but to indulge in sorrow is either not to know or to deny God our Saviour.

True, her heart ached for Letty; and the ache immediately laid itself as close to Letty's ache as it could lie; but that was only the advance-guard of her army of salvation, the light cavalry of sympathy: the next division was help; and behind that lay patience, and strength, and hope, and faith, and joy.