I have known people
who would have begun to fight the devil in a very different and
a very stupid way. They would have begun by scolding the idiotic
cabman; and next they would make his wife angry by saying it
must be her fault as well as his, and by leaving ill-bred though
well-meant shabby little books for them to read, which they were
sure to hate the sight of; while all the time they would not
have put out a finger to touch the wailing baby. But Diamond had
him out of the cradle in a moment, set him up on his knee, and
told him to look at the light. Now all the light there was came
only from a lamp in the yard, and it was a very dingy and yellow
light, for the glass of the lamp was dirty, and the gas was bad;
but the light that came from it was, notwithstanding, as
certainly light as if it had come from the sun itself, and the
baby knew that, and smiled to it; and although it was indeed a
wretched room which that lamp lighted -- so dreary, and dirty,
and empty, and hopeless! -- there in the middle of it sat
Diamond on a stool, smiling to the baby, and
the baby on his knees smiling to the lamp. The father of him sat
staring at nothing, neither asleep nor awake, not quite lost in
stupidity either, for through it all he was dimly angry with
himself, he did not know why.
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