Her girlhood had been innocent ; but she was the possessor of a dangerous beauty , and her mother was dead . Her father was a man notorious for his harshness and violence of temper . When Naomi made the fatal mistake of trusting to a false love that betrayed and deserted , he drove her from his door with taunts and curses . Naomi took up her quarters in a little deserted house at Spruce Cove . Had her child lived it might have saved her . But it died at birth , and with its little life went her last chance of worldly redemption . From that time forth , her feet were set in the way that takes hold on hell . For the past five years , however , Naomi had lived a tolerably respectable life . When Janet Peterson had died , her idiot daughter , Maggie , had been left with no kin in the world . Nobody knew what was to be done with her , for nobody wanted to be bothered with her . Naomi Clark went to the girl and offered her a home . People said she was no fit person to have charge of Maggie , but everybody shirked the unpleasant task of interfering in the matter , except Mr. Leonard , who went to expostulate with Naomi , and , as Janet said , for his pains got her door shut in his face . But from the day when Maggie Peterson went to live with her , Naomi ceased to be the harbour Magdalen . The sun had set when Mr. Leonard reached Spruce Cove , and the harbour was veiling itself in a wondrous twilight splendour . Afar out , the sea lay throbbing and purple , and the moan of the bar came through the sweet , chill spring air with its burden of hopeless , endless longing and seeking . The sky was blossoming into stars above the afterglow ; out to the east the moon was rising , and the sea beneath it was a thing of radiance and silver and glamour ; and a little harbour boat that went sailing across it was transmuted into an elfin shallop from the coast of fairyland . Mr. Leonard sighed as he turned from the sinless beauty of the sea and sky to the threshold of Naomi Clark 's house . It was very small -- one room below , and a sleeping-loft above ; but a bed had been made up for the sick woman by the down-stairs window looking out on the harbour ; and Naomi lay on it , with a lamp burning at her head and another at her side , although it was not yet dark . A great dread of darkness had always been one of Naomi 's peculiarities . She was tossing restlessly on her poor couch , while Maggie crouched on a box at the foot .
Mr. Leonard had not seen her XXXXX five years , and he was shocked at the change in her .
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