Angels and Women (1924)

GREATER CHANGE 123
my name, and when I admitted her, she offered
to assist at my toilet. The extreme
simplicity of my dress rendered such aid unnecessary,
and after some hesitation she
spoke again:
"Aloma, I believed that all fear of God
and sympathy for my own kind were dead in
this withered heart; but your innocence and
purity, sweet child of the wilderness, have
brought back vividly the memory of early
days, when like you I was uncontaminated
by the wickedness of the world, when in faith
I knelt with my princely father to offer the
daily sacrifice, when we mingled our tears
and lamentations at the tomb of the brother
beloved and early lost, when with pleasure I
pondered upon the wisdom and piety of the
ancients and dreamed that I might emulate
their noble deeds.
"Why was I brought to this evil place,
where in the pursuit of power and pleasure
I have forgotten myself and God? Aloma,
I love you because you are what I once was,