For the first time, she
associated those possibilities with the past conduct and characters,
with the future lives and fortunes of the orphan sisters.
Searching, as in a glass darkly, into the two natures, she felt her way,
doubt by doubt, from one possible truth to another. It might be that
the upper surface of their characters was all that she had, thus far,
plainly seen in Norah and Magdalen. It might be that the unalluring
secrecy and reserve of one sister, the all-attractive openness and high
spirits of the other, were more or less referable, in each case, to
those physical causes which work toward the production of moral results.
It might be, that under the surface so formed--a surface which there had
been nothing, hitherto, in the happy, prosperous, uneventful lives of
the sisters to disturb--forces of inborn and inbred disposition had
remained concealed, which the shock of the first serious calamity in
their lives had now thrown up into view. Was this so? Was the promise
of the future shining with prophetic light through the surface-shadow
of Norah's reserve, and darkening with prophetic gloom, under the
surface-glitter of Magdalen's bright spirits? If the life of the
elder sister was destined henceforth to be the ripening ground of the
undeveloped Good that was in her-was the life of the younger doomed to
be the battle-field of mortal conflict with the roused forces of Evil in
herself?
On the brink of that terrible conclusion, Miss Garth shrank back
in dismay.
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