"Exactly, and I to the Club grounds. Diametrically opposite, you see."
"But Uncle Lawrence promised me. He said no one wanted the sleigh this
afternoon."
"The Judge should not allow himself to jump at such hasty conclusions
before hearing the decision of the Foreman of the Jury. It is an unwise
procedure for his Lordship."
"But poor little Hans will be so disappointed! He has been looking
forward to it for weeks."
"Disappointed! My dear coz, the placid Teutonic mind is impervious to
anything so unphilosophical. It will teach him the truth of the adage
that 'there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip,' and in the
future he will not be so foolish as to look forward to anything."
Evadne's lips quivered. "You are cruel," she said, "to shut out the
sunlight from a poor little crippled child!"
"My dear coz, I give you my word of honor, I am sorry. But there is
nothing to make a fuss about. Any other day will suit your little beggar
just as well. I promised some of the fellows to drive them out and a
Hildreth cannot break his word, you know."
"You have made me break mine," said Evadne sadly, as she passed him to
go upstairs.
"Ah, you are a woman," said Louis coolly, "that alters everything."
Did it alter everything? Evadne was pacing her floor with flashing eyes.
"Was there one rule of honor for Louis, another for herself? No! no! no!
How perfectly hateful he is!" and she stamped her foot with sudden
passion. "I despise him!"
Suddenly she fell on her knees beside the lounge and cowered among its
cushions, while the eyes of the Christ, reproachfully tender, seemed to
pierce her very soul. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute you,--that ye may be the children of your Father in
heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
His sorrowful tones seemed to crush her into the earth. Was this her
Christ-likeness? And she had let Marion say she was better than them
all! What if she or Louis were to see her now? He would say again, as he
had said before, "There is not much of the 'meek and lowly' in evidence
at present." "And he would be right," she cried remorsefully. "Oh,
Jesus Christ, is this the way I am following thee!"
"You do right to feel annoyed," argued self. "It hurts you to disappoint
Gretchen and Hans."
"It is your own pride that is hurt," answered her inexorable conscience.
"You wanted to pose as a Lady Bountiful. It is humiliating to let these
poor people see that you are of no consequence in your uncle's house.
Christ kept no carriage. It is not what you do but what you are, that
proves your kinship with the Lord."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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