Part 10 (1/2)
”Yes, will you come into my room, dear.”
The two went in and the door was closed. Aunt Faith's room was like herself, old-fas.h.i.+oned and pleasant; the suns.h.i.+ne streamed in through the broad windows across the floor, and the perfume of the garden filled the air. Hugh took a seat on the chintz lounge, and Aunt Faith having taken a letter from her desk, sat down in her arm-chair by the table. ”I wish to consult you, my dear boy, on a matter of business,”
she said. ”You know the condition of my property and the amount of my income, I am anxious to make some necessary repairs in that little house of mine in Albion, where poor Mrs. Crofts lives, a second cousin of mine, you remember, a widow with very limited means of support. The repairs ought to be made at once, and, just at present, I have not the money on hand; I could borrow it, of course, elsewhere, but I prefer to borrow it of you, the amount that came to you a week or two ago.
Sibyl will need hers for her summer wardrobe, but you will have no use for yours at present, and on the first of August, I shall repay you; with interest,” added Aunt Faith, smiling; ”I am not sure but that I shall _pay_ twenty-five per cent.”
A flush rose in Hugh's face; he did not raise his eyes, but trifled with a piece of string.
”Well, my dear?” said Aunt Faith in some surprise at his silence.
”I am very sorry, Aunt,” said Hugh in a low tone; ”I have not got the money, I have spent it all.”
”Spent it?” echoed Aunt Faith in astonishment. ”My dear boy, is it possible!”
”Yes, it is all gone,” said Hugh, with downcast eyes.
A shade of trouble clouded Mrs. Sheldon's gentle face, and she sighed; the old heart-ache came back, the same pain which had a.s.sailed her on the first of June, her birthday, when doubts came thronging into her mind, doubts as to her own fitness for her position with its heavy responsibility of training five young souls in the path of duty and righteousness. ”Hugh must have got into some trouble,” she thought, ”and something, too, which he has not confided to me. I fear it is a debt; perhaps a debt of which he is ashamed. Oh, my poor, poor boy!”
Hugh did not speak, and at length his aunt said gently, ”I fear you have had some debts, dear; if you had told me, I could have helped you before this.”
”I know you are always ready to help me, Aunt Faith.”
”Then it was a debt, Hugh?”
”Yes; it was a debt, Aunt Faith,” said Hugh gravely.
”Is it all paid now?”
”Yes; every cent. I have the receipt.”
”I am glad of that; but have you any other debts?”
”No, not one,” said Hugh, raising his eyes at last with a brighter expression. ”I cannot tell you about that debt, Aunt Faith, but I _can_ tell you that it was no disgrace to me.”
The shadow melted away from Mrs. Sheldon's face, she laid her hand upon her nephew's golden hair, and looked lovingly into his dark blue eyes. ”Hugh,” she said earnestly, ”you are like your father, and he was my favorite brother. I love you very much, more than you know, and I believe you would not willingly grieve me. You are still under twenty-one, and you are soon to leave me to enter the busy life of a great city. I am so anxious for you, Hugh! If I could only know that you had that firm faith which is man's only safeguard in temptation!”
Tears stood in her eyes as she spoke, and Hugh felt that she loved him indeed.
”What is faith?” he said thoughtfully.
”A firm belief in the mercy of G.o.d through His son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and a realization of the necessity of a Saviour to atone for our sins,” said Aunt Faith reverently.
”I believe in G.o.d, Aunt Faith. I believe in Him implicitly. I cannot understand how a reasonable being can deny His personal and omnipotent majesty. The sky alone would be enough to convince me, without counting the wonders of the earth and our every-day life. How can any one look out of the window, at night, and see those myriad lights on high, without bowing in adoration before the incomprehensible greatness of the Creator? What do we know of the stars, after all? How much has the most profound science discovered? Next to nothing! Not but that I read all that has been written by the late astronomers, for the subject is very fascinating; it is the fairy tale of science. But still, the nursery rhyme expresses it best:--
'Twinkle, twinkle, little star!
How I wonder what you are!'”
”What we know not now, we shall know here-after,” said Aunt Faith; ”but in addition to your belief in the Creator, do you not also recognize the necessity for a Saviour?”
”There it is, Aunt Faith! Are we all really such miserable sinners? Is there none good? Must we always answer, 'no, not one?' Even in my short life, I have known so many who are good and generous! I never could endure whining, you know. I never could endure a gloomy, tearful religion. If we were put into the world, it surely was intended that we should enjoy its beautiful life, and be happy with our fellow mortals. I believe men should try to be good sons, good husbands, and good citizens, and should try to be happy themselves, as well as to make others happy. I can never believe in the virtue of morbid self-a.n.a.lysis, gloomy depression, and harsh judgment. 'Worms of the dust!' they say. Well, if the worms are created, and put into the dust, that is the state of life to which they are called, and they will be better worms if they fulfil the duties of a worm, no matter how humble, than they would be if they crawled up on a solitary stone, and wilfully starved themselves to death.”
”Surely, Hugh, there is nothing in the idea of a merciful Saviour to forbid a reasonable enjoyment of life.”