You do not esteem good deeds?” She shifted the basket handle to both hands, just as a cool breeze blew a bonnet string across her face. “My dear Miss Keene, what would the world be...

Yes, sometimes we must lose something…someone…before we realize its worth.

I have been praying, too, for the first time in my life. That parson, Tugwell, he helped me see – not the error of my ways, for I knew them all to well already –...

Though I prefer to linger on more recent pleasant moments.

You are free to go, Father,” she whispered. “We are all of us free.” Olivia finally understood what Mr Tugwell had tried to tell her. This was how it was for every fallen crteature. Christ...

She smiled and feigned enthusiasm, although she cared little for the game. Sometimes that’s what you did for the people you loved.

Do you not pray, Miss Smallwood?’She avoided his gaze. ‘No.”God is speaking to you every day,’ he said softly. ‘You might return the favor.’She raised her chin. ‘I don’t hear Him.”Do you listen?’She looked at...

But I don’t think any parent can expect to escape this life without disappointing his child at some point. And the same could be said the other way around. We all of us fall short...

I know I’m no great orator. But I ask you to bear with me as I fumble through this new duty.

Come to think of it, she did not speak a word. Yet I could have sworn she had the most beautiful voice.

Yet never have I longed to kiss any woman’s hands as I long to kiss these.

How long had it had been since she’d thought back on the evenings around the fire, number games at the kitchen table, or listening to her father sing? Too long. Yes, there had been bad...

We all of us die, Miss Smallwood,’ he interrupted. ‘But we don’t all of us make our lives count for something. How much better to die saving another soul than to stand safe on shore...

At the door he turned and looked back. She stood, facing away from him, the sunlight from the window enshrouding her in an unmerited halo of gold. Perhaps, he thought, that was how God saw...

I was wrong about you. I was wrong about a great many things.

Where has God promised to fulfill our every whim according to the minutia of our earthly desires? Where has He promised to keep us from suffering or disappointment? Things He did not spare His own...

She also watched Miss Upchurch as she danced with Mr. Hudson. They bounded through the steps in lively abandon. Mr. Hudson’s form was a bit ungainly, but he had never seemed so young and handsome...