Bildungsromans; City and town life -- Juvenile fiction; First loves -- Juvenile fiction; Religion -- Philosophy -- Juvenile fiction
"Mrs. Ralston," said Lorenzo, not even blushing, "you're the very person
we need this minute. I want to marry Jane, and she won't hear to it
because of her father's debts. The debts are all right and everything's
all right, only she won't believe it. I wish you'd climb the fence and
help me persuade her, for although I _know_ she'll end by marrying me,
I've just set my heart on converting her to her own religion first."
Susan swung easily over the fence. "You're just right, Mr. Rath, you
ought to marry her. She's the nicest person to have around the house
that I ever saw; she's far too good to be a nurse. How much did your
father owe, you Sunshine Jane, you? Maybe I can pay it. I will if I
can."
"There," said Lorenzo; "see how easy it is to evolve money if you'd only
trust a little?"
Jane looked at him and then at Susan. "I couldn't take your money,
Auntie," said she, quite gently, but quite firmly. "And then, too," she
added, with her roguish smile, "you've left it to Aunt Matilda."
"Yes, but dear," Susan's face became suddenly radiant, "you know I've
been working your religion on her; maybe she isn't coming back at all;
maybe something will happen; maybe she's going to be drowned or
something like that in some perfectly right way."
"No," said Lorenzo soberly. "It isn't necessary to plan as to God's
business at all. He knows. I don't think that Jane ought to take
anybody's money; she ought to pay the debts with her own money, but I
can't see why she can't trust and know it's coming."
"Because there's no place for it to come from," said Jane firmly.
"Unless Matilda--" Susan interposed.
"I believe I'm better at her religion than she is herself," said
Lorenzo. "I declare, I believe that there's nothing that I can't get
now. I wanted a house, and I worked just as the book said! I saw myself
living cosily alone, and in less than a week I was living cosily alone.
Now I want Jane with me in the house, and I mean to have her, and I
shall have her, and there's no doubt about that; but I do wish--with all
my heart--that she could rise to a higher plane."
"If that's all, I know how to manage that easily enough," said Susan.
"We could get old Mr. Cattermole in for a week and raise Jane's plane
with him, just like she raised mine with Mrs. Croft."
"Oh, she'll rise," said her lover quietly. "We must give her time and
help her, that's all."
Jane stood doubting between them. Her aunt regarded her wistfully. "Dear
me," she said, "I wonder if I could screw myself up to believing she'll
come in for a fortune. I want to help, but I'm a little like her--I
can't for the life of me see where it's to come from."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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