"But he isn't my Mr. Hemstead," said Lottie, laughing.
"Well, it seems as if he were related, or belonged to you in some way. When I think of one, I can't help thinking of the other."
"O dear!" exclaimed Lottie, still laughing, blushing, and affecting comic alarm; "being joined together by a minister's wife is almost as bad as by the minister himself."
"Almost as good, you mean. You would have my congratulation rather than sympathy if you secured such a prince among men."
"How little you know about him, Mrs. Dlimm! He is going to be a poor, forlorn home missionary3; and your husband's increased salary will be royal compared with his."
"He will never be forlorn; and how long will he be poor?"
—"All his life possibly."
"That's not very long. What will come after? What kind of a master is he serving?"
"Do you know," said Lottie, lowering her tone, and giving her chair a little confidential4 hitch5 toward the simple-hearted lady with whom formality and circumlocution6 were impossible, "that I am beginning to think about these things a great deal?"
"I don't wonder, my dear," said Mrs. Dlimm, with a little sigh of satisfaction. "No one could help thinking about him who saw his manly7 courtesy and tact8 the evening you were here."
"O, no," said Lottie, blushing still more deeply; "I did not mean that. Please understand me. Mr. Hemstead is only a chance acquaintance that I have met while visiting my aunt, Mrs. Marchmont. I mean that when I was here last I was a very naughty girl, but I have since been thinking how I could be a better one. Indeed, I should like to be a Christian9, as you are."
In a moment the little lady was all tender solicitude10. She was one who believed in conversion11; and, to her, being converted was the greatest event of life.
But just then Hemstead entered, and she had enough natural, womanly interest—not curiosity—to note the unconscious welcome of Lottie's eyes, and the quick color come and go in her face, as if a fire were burning in her heart and throwing its flickering12 light upon her fair features.
"Chance acquaintance, indeed!" she thought. "Why, here is this city-bred girl blushing as I once did about Mr. Dlimm. Whether she knows it or not, her blushes must tell the same story as mine."
But though Mrs. Dlimm was so unconventional, she had tact, and turned the conversation to the subject of the donation party.
"See here," she exclaimed exultantly, tugging13 a bulky commentary; "this is one of the results of your coming the other evening. Mr. Dlimm has been wanting this book a long time, and now he pores over it so much that I am getting jealous."
"The opinions expressed in such a ponderous14 volume ought to have great weight, surely," said Hemstead, smiling.
"And do you know," she continued, in an aside to Lottie, "that each of the children has had a new warm winter suit? and, wonderful to tell, I have bought myself a dress right from the store, instead of making over something sent me by brother Abel's wife from New York."
Lottie's eyes moistened, and she said in half soliloquy, "I didn't know it was so nice and easy to make others happy."
"Ah! depend upon it, you are learning lots of things," said Mrs. Dlimm, significantly. "When God begins to teach, then we do learn, and something worth knowing, too."
"I thought that God's lessons were very hard and painful," said
Lottie to Hemstead, with a spice of mischief15 in her manner.
"Mrs. Dlimm is a better authority than I was," he replied. "Do you know," he continued, addressing their hostess, "that Miss Marsden has done more to teach me how to preach than all my years at the seminary?"
"Surely," exclaimed Mrs. Dlimm, "that's a rather strong statement. I can understand how Miss Marsden can do a great deal for one. We have had very nice experience in that direction; but just how she should teach you more than all the grave professors and learned text-books is not clear at once."
"Well, she has," he maintained stoutly16. "I doubt whether your husband gets as much light upon the Bible from that huge commentary there as Miss Marsden gave me in one afternoon."
Mrs. Dlimm turned her eyes inquiringly toward Lottie, who said, laughingly, "It would seem, last week, that I was a heathen and Mr. Hemstead a heretic."
"And what are you now?"
"O, he's all right now."
"And not you?"
"I fear I shall always be a little crooked17; but I hope I am not exactly a heathen any longer."
"Miss Marsden was a heathen, as Nathanael was a shrewd and dishonest
Jew," said Hemstead.
"What kind of a Jew was Nathanael?" asked Lottie, innocently.
"Christ said, when he first saw him," replied Mrs. Dlimm, smiling,
"'Behold18 an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile19.'"
Then both were puzzled at Lottie's sudden and painful flush, but they ascribed it to her modesty20; and Hemstead, to give her time to recover herself, gave a brief sketch21 of his sermon, and how, in the afternoon, while reading, at Lottie's suggestion, the complete story of Lazarus, they both had seen the unspeakable sympathy of Christ for those He sought to save.
"O dear!" thought Lottie, "when shall I escape the consequences of my foolish jest? 'Without guile,' indeed!"
Mr. Dlimm now appeared, and he and Hemstead were soon discussing the rendering22 of an obscure passage, upon which the big commentary gave the conflicting opinions of a dozen learned doctors. Mrs. Dlimm carried Lottie off to her sanctum, the nursery,—the fruitful source of questions and mysteries the learned doctors would find still more difficult to solve.
"And you are contented23 with this narrow round of life?" asked Lottie, curiously24, as Mrs. Dlimm finished the narration25 of what seemed to her very tame experience.
"Narrow!" said Mrs. Dlimm, reproachfully; "my life and work are not narrow. I have six little immortals26 to train. A million years hence they will either bless or reproach me. What consideration in fashionable life is equal to that? Besides, my husband is engaged in the same kind of work that brought the Son of God from heaven to earth. It is my privilege to help him. Scrub Oaks is as much of a place as many of the villages in which He preached, and I am grateful that I can take part in so royal a calling."
"Mrs. Dlimm," said Lottie, with sudden animation27, "I shouldn't wonder if you and your husband were very great people in heaven."
"Oh!" cried the little lady, laughing. "We never think of that. Why should we? But I know there will be a nook there for us, and the thought makes me very happy."
"And you really and truly have been happy in all your toil28 and privations?"
"Yes," said Mrs Dlimm, with a strange, far-away look coming into her large blue eyes; "when everything on earth has been darkest I have been most happy, and this has confirmed my faith. Little children are sources of great joy, but they also cause much pain and anxiety. Yet when I have been suffering most,—when the wardrobe has been scanty29 and the larder30 almost bare,—God has taken me to His heart as I clasp this child here, and comforted by assuring me, 'Never fear, my child, I will take care of you and yours.' See how He keeps His word. He sent you here, with your bright, sunny face. He sent Mr. Hemstead here; and between you both we shall make a long stage of our homeward journey most pleasantly."
"I never heard any one talk like you before," said Lottie, musingly31. "You seem to believe all the Bible says, as if it were actually right before you."
"Believe! Why not? The idea of God not keeping His word!"
"And is faith just the certainty that God will keep His word?"
"That is just faith; and though this great world—for little bits of which people lose their souls—shall pass away, God's word shall stand until His least promise is fulfilled."
"That is not our creed32 on Fifth Avenue," said Lottie sadly. "The world first, God last. But you sometimes, surely, wish that Mr. Dlimm was rich, and that you could have for him and the children and yourself all that heart could wish?"
"I used to feel so occasionally, but I have got past that now. God loves my husband and children better than I do, and He will provide what is best for us all. I simply try to rest in His arms as this child does in mine."
"How strange it all is!" said Lottie, thoughtfully.
"Why strange? Your earthly father provides for you the best he can; and if our Heavenly Father provides for us in the same way, surely will not His be the better provision? What an absurd, unnatural33 thing it is to suppose there is anything better than what God will give His own dear children. Are not both earth and heaven His? and He has promised the best of both to us."
"I can scarcely realize it all yet," said Lottie, with tears in her eyes. "I suppose it is because you are so natural and true that you seem so odd to me, who have been brought up among those that I fear look at things in false lights."
"I think I understand you, my dear," said Mrs. Dlimm, hopefully. "A child's penny toy will hide a great mountain if held too near the eyes. It is thus the eyes of the worldly are blinded by trifles till I fear some will never see God or heaven. But He is teaching you better. As long as you follow His gentle leadings, and the pure impulses of your own heart, all will be well. But as soon as you begin to take counsel of the world and its self-seeking spirit, you will find yourself in trouble. If we wish to prosper34 and be happy in God's world, we must do His will. This is good, sound common sense, which the experience of every age has borne out. It often seems hard at first, my dear, as you will find out. The scourging35 was very hard to bear; but Paul and Silas, singing in prison, with their feet made fast in the stocks, were better off than their jailer, who was about to kill himself, and the magistrates36, who, no doubt, were in mortal fear because of the earthquake. We, too, can sing, whatever happens, as long as God and conscience are upon our side."
It will thus be seen that Mrs. Dlimm was a rationalist as well as a believer, though not of the new school.
For some reason, her philosophy was peculiarly acceptable to Lottie, and, though scarcely conscious why, the exhortation38 to follow the impulses of her own heart seemed especially natural and right; but her fashionable mother would have been alarmed indeed, if she had known that her beautiful daughter was becoming the disciple39 of Mrs. Dlimm.
Though their call was by no means a short one, it passed all too quickly. The memory of it would never fade from Lottie's mind; and it became another link in the chain by which God was seeking to bind40 her to a better future than her friends could dream of in their earthly ambition.
"I am very glad I made this visit," Lottie said, as they were hastening home lest they should be late to dinner. "It was very kind of you to take me so far."
He turned and lifted his eyebrows41 comically.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"To hear you, one would think that I had been a martyr42 for your sake, while, in truth, I never enjoyed myself more."
"Yes," said she; "but you welcome afflictions and trials of your patience."
"Would that I might be ever thus afflicted43!" he exclaimed impulsively44. Then, suddenly becoming conscious of the natural suggestion of his words, he blushed deeply; but not more so than Lottie, who turned away her face to hide her flaming cheeks. He, misinterpreting the act, thought that she meant a hint that such remarks were not agreeable, and was thinking how to remedy what he now regarded as a very foolish speech, when she, with woman's tact, led the conversation to unembarrassing topics, and before they were aware the horse stopped at Mrs. Marchmont's door.
Lottie disarmed45 both suspicion and censure46 to a considerable extent by saying, "I had promised Mrs. Dlimm to come and see her again, and wished to keep my word. I knew no one would care to go there save Mr. Hemstead, so I took him to see the parson while I visited the parson's wife. I enjoyed my call very much, too; and as Mr. Hemstead and Mr. Dlimm had a great argument over a knotty47 theological point, I suppose he feels somewhat repaid also."
This put matters in quite another light. That one should go to see a parson's wife, and the other to discuss theology with the parson, was very different from stealing off for an indefinite ride with the purpose of being alone together. De Forrest was quite comforted, and was even inclined to regard Lottie as rather considerate in not asking him to accompany her when visiting such undesirable48 people as the Dlimms. Though why she should wish to visit them herself was a mystery. But then, he thought, "Lottie is odd and full of queer moods and whims49. Let her indulge them now, because, as my wife, they will scarcely be the thing." He was still more comforted by noting that she did not have a great deal to say to Hemstead—indeed, that she rather avoided him.
"She has had enough, and too much, of his heavy stupid company," he thought, "and finds that even the carrying out of the practical joke is too hard work. If I can only get another good opportunity, I won't wait till she goes to sleep before bringing the question to an issue."
But Lottie gave him no opportunity, and, while kind and gentle toward him, adroitly50 managed that they should never be alone.
And Hemstead also, who had found their private tete-a-tetes so delightful51 and productive of good results, was equally unable to be alone with her. Not that Lottie was averse52, but because she saw that lynx-eyed Bel was watching her; and again for the hundredth time she wished her cynical53 friend back in the city.
Lottie's manner and apparent reserve were so marked at one time that Hemstead began to grow troubled, though why he scarcely knew. There was no cause, save the peculiar37 sensitiveness of one whose sunshine is beginning to come, not from the skies, but from the changing features of a fellow-mortal.
Lottie quickly saw his shadowed face, and surmised54 the cause. Soon after, when his eyes were questioningly seeking hers, she gave him such a sunny, genial55 smile as to assure him that, whatever might be the cause of her somewhat distant manner, it did not result from any estrangement56 from him.
Heretofore, when Lottie had liked a gentleman, she had been frank in showing that preference within the limits of lady-like bearing. But, for some reason, she began to grow excessively shy in manifesting any interest in Hemstead that the others could note. The reason with which she satisfied herself explained her feeling but partially57.
"They will think I am still trying to carry out my wicked, foolish joke."
But she did long for another unrestrained talk with him, and watched keenly to secure it without exciting remark. De Forrest did all he could to prevent this, however, and Bel unconsciously became his ally. With woman's quick perception, she saw that Lottie was indulging in something more than a "mood," and felt that it was a duty she owed to her friend to prevent mischief.
Thus Monday and Tuesday passed away, Lottie being too circumspect58 to give Bel sufficient cause for speaking plainly.
Dan and Mr. Dimmerly were the only ones of the household who regarded the change in Lottie with unmixed satisfaction. Not giving a thought to the cause, they were pleased with the gentleness and attention which resulted.
"Lottie," said her brother Dan, as she kissed him good-night, after telling a marvellously good story, "what has come over you? You make me think of Auntie Jane."
"I must be growing good indeed, if I remind any one of Auntie Jane," thought Lottie, exultantly.
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1
exultantly
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| adv.狂欢地，欢欣鼓舞地 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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circumlocution
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| n. 绕圈子的话，迂回累赘的陈述 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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13
tugging
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| n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
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14
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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guile
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| n.诈术 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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immortals
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| 不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 )； 永生不朽者 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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larder
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| n.食物贮藏室，食品橱 | |
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musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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scourging
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| 鞭打( scourge的现在分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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exhortation
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| n.劝告，规劝 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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40
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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47
knotty
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| adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的 | |
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48
undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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51
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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52
averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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53
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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54
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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55
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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56
estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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circumspect
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| adj.慎重的，谨慎的 | |
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