Part 8 (2/2)

A solemn hush held the party. ”'I did my best,'” said a trooper softly at length. ”Ah, well, it'll be a good job for all of us, if when our time comes we can say that with as much truth as he!”

[Sidenote: Mary sacrificed herself to help another. The renunciation in time brought reward.]

Mary's Stepping Aside

BY

EDITH C. KENYON

”How very foolish of you! So unbusinesslike!” cried Mrs. Croft angrily.

”I could not do anything else, Hetty. Poor Ethel is worse off than we are. She has her widowed mother to help; they are all so poor, and it was such a struggle for Mrs. Forrest to pay that 160 for Ethel's two years' training in the Physical Culture College. You know, when Ethel and I entered for training, there was a good demand for teachers of physical culture, but now, alas! the supply exceeds the demand, and it has been such a great trouble to Ethel that she could not get a post, and begin to repay her mother for the outlay. She failed every time she tried to secure an appointment; the luck seemed always against her. And now she was next to me, and I had only to step aside to enable her to receive the appointment.”

”And you did so! That is just like you, Mary. You will never get on in the world. What will people say? They are already wondering why my clever sister is not more successful.”

”Does it really matter what people think?” questioned Mary, and there was a far-away look in her blue eyes, as she glanced through the window at the wide stretch of moorland to be seen from it.

She had been to London to try to secure an appointment as teacher of physical culture at a large ladies' college. There were several applicants for the appointment, which was worth 100 a year and board and lodging, not bad for a commencement, and she was successful.

The lady princ.i.p.al came out to tell her so, and mentioned that Ethel Forrest, her college friend, was the next to her, adding that the latter appeared to be a remarkably nice girl and very capable. In a moment, as Mary realised how terrible poor Ethel's disappointment would be, she resolved to step aside in order that her friend might have the appointment.

The lady princ.i.p.al was surprised, and a little offended, but forthwith gave Ethel Forrest the post, and Mary was more than repaid by Ethel's unbounded grat.i.tude.

”I can't tell you what it is to me to obtain this good appointment,” she said, when they came away together. ”Poor mother will now cease to deplore the money she could so ill afford to spend on my training. You see, it seemed as if she had robbed the younger children for me, and that it was money thrown away when she could so ill spare it, but now I shall repay her as soon as possible out of my salary, and the children will have a chance.”

”Yes, I know. That is why I did it,” Mary said. ”And I am happy in your happiness, Ethel darling.”

”But I am afraid it is rather irksome for you, living so long with your sister and brother-in-law, although they are so well off,” Ethel remarked, after a while.

”That is a small matter in comparison,” Mary said lightly. ”And I am so happy about you, Ethel, your mother will be so pleased.”

It seemed to Mary afterwards, when she left Ethel and went by express to York, where she took a slow train to the little station on the moors near her sister's home, that her heart was as light and happy as if she had received a great gift instead of surrendering an advantage. Truly it is more blessed to give than to receive, for there is no joy so pure as ”the joy of doing kindnesse.”

But on her arrival at the house which had been her home since her parents died, she found herself being severely blamed for what she had done.

In vain Mary reminded her sister that she was not exactly poor, and certainly not dependent upon her. Their father had left a very moderate income to both his daughters, Hetty the elder, who had married Dr.

Croft, a country pract.i.tioner, and Mary, who, as a sensible modern young woman, determined to have a vocation, and go in for the up-to-date work of teaching physical culture.

Finding she could make no impression upon her sister, Mrs. Croft privately exhorted her husband to speak to Mary about the disputed point.

That evening, therefore, after dinner, as they sat round the fire chatting, the doctor remarked: ”But you know, Mary, it won't do to step aside for others to get before you in the battle of life. You owe a duty to yourself and--and your friends.”

”I am quite aware of that,” Mary replied, ”but this was such an exceptional case. Ethel Forrest is so poor, and----”

[Sidenote: ”Each for Himself!”]

”Yes, yes. But, my dear girl, it is each for himself in this world.”

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