At length he had got so far, after a world of toil and thought, that Naomi knew when he patted her head that it was for approval, and when he touched her hand it was for assent.

Then he stopped very suddenly.

His hope had not drooped, and neither had his energy failed, but the conviction had fastened upon him that such effort in his case must be an offence against Heaven.

Naomi was not merely an infirm creature from the left hand of Nature; she was an afflicted being from the right hand of God.

She was a living monument of sin that was not her own.