Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III SARA. MEETS WITH A CHECK Suffering, like the drip of water on a stone, sets indelibly a mark of wear, and there was no one of the three dwellers in the house at the gate but showed next morning the strain which had been upon them in the night. Luka An- tonovitch was moody and distraught. He broke his fast in silence and when the meal was finished, deserted promptly from the room. Lisa Fedorovna, too, was heavy-eyed and languid in spite of her strong endeavor to look cheerfully on life. But Sara Lukievna was the most self-conscious of the three. She could not keep out of her face the depression which came to her from her unexpected participation in the others' cares, and she followed Lisa Fedorovna's listless movements, as she went about her work, with eyes which had in them a frank appeal for further confidences. Her heart was very tender toward her new mother in her distress, and besides, she found a burning interest in the mysterious trouble which lay between the newly wedded pair. So plainly did her thoughts show in her face that the older woman noticed and finally let her feelings into speech. "Do you remember," she began abruptly, "how bitter life seemed to you the day your father went away?" The girl did remember and made instant answer. "It was the end of my world!" she declared positively. "Then you understand, perhaps, how lonely it was for me last night, here in this house for the first time. Was it so very bad? Did I keep you awake long?" Sara Lukievna felt a twinge of shame, as if somehow it had been eavesdropping, that she had heard. "I could not but hear," she said apologetically. "And besides, I was so sorry that that alone would have served to keep me awake." Lisa Fedorovna did not resume her work, but stood looking first at one ...