EMPTY PURSES.
It was not until Harold's life was really safe that his mother realized
how very nearly he had been taken from her. But for Hinton's timely
interposition, and the arrival of Doctor H---- at the critical moment,
the face she so loved might have been cold and still now, and the spirit
have returned to God who gave it.
Looking at the little sleeper breathing in renewed health and life with
each gentle inspiration, such a rush of gratitude and over-powering
emotion came over Mrs. Home that she was obliged to follow Hinton into
his sitting-room. There she suddenly went down on her knees.
"God bless you," she said. "God most abundantly bless you for what you
have done for me and mine. You are, except my husband, the most truly
Christian man I ever met."
"Don't," said Hinton, moved and even shocked at her position. "I
loved--I love the little lad. It is nothing, what we do for those we
love."
"No; it is, as you express it, nothing to save a mother's heart from
worse than breaking," answered Charlotte Home. "If ever you marry and
have a son of your own, you will begin to understand what you have done
for me. You will be thankful then to think of this day."
Then with a smile which an angel might have given him, the mother went
away, and Hinton sat down to write to Charlotte. But he was much moved
and excited by those earnest words of love and approval. He felt as
though a laurel wreath had been placed on his head, and he wondered
would his first brief, his first sense of legal triumph, be sweeter to
him than the look in that mother's face this morning.
"And it was so easily won," he said to himself. "For who but a brute
under the circumstances could have acted otherwise?"
In writing to Charlotte he told her all. It was a relief to pour out his
heart to her, though of course he carefully kept back names.
By return of post he received her answer.
"I must do something for that mother. You will not let me come to her.
But if I cannot and must not come, I can at least help with money. How
much money shall I send you?"
To this Hinton answered,--
"None. She is a proud woman. She would not accept it."
As he put this second letter in the post, he felt that any money gift
between these two Charlottes would be impossible. During little Harold's
illness he had put away all thoughts of the possibility of Mrs. Home
being entitled to any of his Charlotte's wealth. The near and likely
approach of death had put far from his mind all ideas of money. But now,
with the return of the usual routine of life in this small and humble
house, came back to Hinton's mind the thoughts which had so sorely
troubled him on the night on which Charlotte had told him Mrs. Home's
story. For his own personal convenience and benefit he had put away
these thoughts. He had decided that he could not move hand or foot in
the matter. But in the very house with this woman, though he might so
resolve not to act, he could not put the sense of the injustice done to
her away from his heart. He pondered on it and grew uneasy as to the
righteousness of his own conduct. As this uneasiness gathered strength,
he even avoided Mrs. Home's presence. For the first time, too, in his
life Hinton was beginning to realize what a very ugly thing
poverty--particularly the poverty of the upper classes--really is. To
make things easier for this family in their time of illness, he had
insisted on having what meals he took in the house, in the room with Mr.
and Mrs. Home. He would not, now that Harold was better, change this
custom. But though he liked it, it brought him into direct contact with
the small shifts necessary to make so slender a purse as their's cover
their necessary expenses. Mr. Home noticed nothing; but Mrs. Home's thin
face grew more and more worn, and Hinton's heart ached as he watched it.
He felt more and more compunctions as to his own conduct. These
feelings were to be quickened into activity by a very natural
consequence which occurred just then.
Little Harold's life was spared, and neither Daisy nor the baby had
taken the fever. So far all was well. Doctor H----, too, had ceased his
visits, and the little invalid was left to the care of the first doctor
who had been called in. Yes, up to a certain point Harold's progress
towards recovery was all that could be satisfactory. But beyond that
point he did not go. For a fortnight after the fever left him his
progress towards recovery was rapid. Then came the sudden standstill.
His appetite failed him, a cough came on, and a hectic flush in the pale
little face. The child was pining for a change of air, and the father's
and mother's purse had been already drained almost to emptiness by the
expenses of the first illness. One day when Doctor Watson came and felt
the feeble, too rapid pulse he looked grave. Mrs. Home followed him from
the room.
"What ails my boy, doctor? He is making no progress, none whatever."
"Does he sleep enough?" asked Doctor Watson suddenly.
"Not well; he coughs and is restless."
"Ah! I am sorry he has got that cough. How is his appetite?"
"He does not fancy much food. He has quite turned against his beef-tea."
Doctor Watson was silent.
"What is wrong?" asked Mrs. Home, coming nearer and looking up into his
face.
"Madam, there is nothing to alarm yourself with. Your boy has gone
through a most severe illness; the natural consequences must follow. He
wants change. He will be fit to travel by easy stages in a week at
latest. I should recommend Torquay. It is mild and shielded from the
spring east winds. Take him to Torquay as soon as possible. Keep him
there for a month, and he will return quite well."
"Suppose I cannot?"
"Ah! then----" with an expressive shrug of the shoulders and raising of
the brows, "my advice is to take him if possible. I don't like that
cough."
Doctor Watson turned away. He felt sorry enough, but he had more acute
cases than little Harold Home's to trouble him, and he wisely resolved
that to think about what could not be remedied, would but injure his own
powers of working. Being a really kind-hearted man he said to himself,
"I will make their bill as light as I can when I send it in." And then
he forgot the poor curate's family until the time came round for his
next visit. Meanwhile Mrs. Home stood still for a moment where he had
left her, then went slowly to her own room.
"Mother, mother, I want you," called the weak, querulous voice of the
sick child.
"Coming in a moment, darling," she said. But for that one moment, she
felt she must be alone.
Locking her door she went down on her knees. Not a tear came to her
eyes, not a word to her lips. There was an inward groan, expressing
itself in some voiceless manner after this fashion,--
"My God, my God, must I go through the fiery furnace?" Then smoothing
her hair, and forcing a smile back to her lips, she went back to her
little son.
All that afternoon she sat with him, singing to him, telling him
stories, playing with him. In the evening, however, she sought an
opportunity to speak to her husband alone.
"Angus, you know how nearly we lost our boy a week ago?"
The curate paused, and looked at her earnestly, surprised at her look
and manner.
"Yes, my dearest," he said. "But God was merciful."
"Oh! Angus," she said; and now relief came to her, for as she spoke she
began to weep. "You are good, you are brave, you could have let him go.
But for me--for me--it would have killed me. I should have died or gone
mad!"
"Lottie dear--my darling, you are over-strung. The trial, the fiery
trial, was not sent. Why dwell on what our loving Father has averted?"
"Oh, Angus! but has He--has He," then choking with pent-up emotion, she
told what the doctor had said to-day, how necessary the expensive change
was for the little life. "And we have no money," she said in conclusion,
"our purse is very nearly empty."
"Very nearly empty indeed," answered Angus Home.
He was absolutely silent after this news, no longer attempting to
comfort his wife.
"Angus, God is cruel if for the sake of wanting a little money our boy
must die."
"Don't," said the curate--God was so precious to him that these words
smote on him even now with a sense of agony--"don't," he repeated, and
he raised his hand as though to motion away an evil spirit.
"He is cruel if He lets our boy die for want of money to save him,"
repeated the mother in her desperation.
"He won't do that, Lottie--He will never do that, there is not the least
fear."
"Then how are we to get the money?"
"I don't know, I cannot think to-night. I will go up to Harold now."
He turned and left the room with slow steps. As he mounted the stairs
his back was so bent, his face so gray and careworn, that though
scarcely forty he looked like an old man.
This was Harold's one precious hour with his father, and the little
fellow was sitting up in bed and expecting him.
"Father," he said, noticing the anxious look on his face, which was
generally as serene and peaceful as the summer sea, "what is the matter?
You are ill; are you going to have the scarlet fever too?"
"No, my dear, dear boy. I am quite well, quite well at least in body. I
have a care on my mind that makes me look a little sad, but don't notice
it, Harold, it will pass."
"_You_ have a care on your mind!" said Harold in a tone of surprise. "I
know mother often, often has, but I did not think you had cares,
father."
"How can I help it, boy, sometimes?"
"I thought you gave your cares to God. I don't understand a bit how you
manage it, but I remember quite well your telling mother that you gave
your cares away to God."
The father turning round suddenly, stooped down and kissed the boy.
"Thank you, my son, for reminding me. Yes, I will give this care too to
God, it shall not trouble me."
Then the two began to talk, and the son's little wasted hand was held in
the father's. The father's face had recovered its serenity, and the
little son, though he coughed continually, looked happy.
"Father," he said suddenly, "there's just one thing I'm sorry for."
"What's that, my boy?"
"There were a whole lot of other things, father; about my never having
gone to live in the country, and those gypsy teas that mother told me
of. You light a fire outside, you know, father, and boil the kettle on
it, and have your tea in the woods and the fields. It must be just
delicious. I was sorry about that, for I've never been to one, never
_even_ to one all my life long; and then there's the pretty lady--I do
want to see my pretty lady once again. I was sorry about those things
all day, but not now. 'Tisn't any of those things makes me so sorry
now."
"What makes you sorry, Harold?"
"Father, I'm just a little bit jealous about Jesus. You see there's
always such a lot of us little children dying and going to heaven, and
He can't come for us all, so He has to send angels. Now I don't want an
angel, I want Him to come for me Himself."
"Perhaps He will, Harold," said his father, "perhaps Jesus will be so
very loving to His little lamb that He will find time to come for him
Himself."
"Oh, father! when you are giving Him your new care to-night, will you
just ask Him not to be so dreadfully busy, but to try and come Himself?"
"Yes, Harold," said the father.
After this promise little Harold went to sleep very happily.