LEARNERS.
LTHOUGH the sense of desolation was gone from Flossy Shipley, she was not without something to be troubled over. As to that, when one sets out to be troubled, one can nearly always find an excuse.
Flossy lay awake over hers for hours that night. Mr. Roberts was given to keeping more proper hours than those in which party goers indulge. So it happened that the library was vacant when the family returned, the gas turned low, and the grate carefully supplied with coal to give them a warm greeting. But the easy chairs before the bright fire told no tales of all the pleasant and helpful words that had been spoken there that evening.
So far as the family knew, Flossy had spent her evening in solitude. But they would come to know it; would have to be introduced to Mr. Roberts; there would have to be a prompt explanation of their interest in each other. Flossy meant to have no delays, nor chances for mistakes, this time.
The momentous question was, how would her father receive the message, what word would he have for the stranger? She could almost have wished that his coming had been delayed for a few weeks more, until the sore sullen feeling over disappointed plans had had time to quiet. But as it was, since Mr. Roberts was to be in the city and she was to see him, she would have no pretense of his being merely a chance acquaintance of her Chautauqua life, making friendly calls; at least her father should know that they both meant more than that. Whether he would ignore the claims they made, and choose to treat Mr. Roberts as a stranger, Flossy did not know; it seemed more than likely that he would.
As to that, she could not help owning to herself that he would have very plausible reasons for so doing. What was she supposed to know about Mr. Evan Roberts? Closely questioned, she would have to admit that she had never heard of his existence till those golden Chautauqua days; that although she walked and talked much with him during those two weeks, there had been so much to talk about, such vital interests that pressed upon them, so many things for her to learn, that they had spent no time at all in talking about each other's past.
She remembered now, that strangely enough she had no idea even at this moment what his business was, except that from some casual remark she judged that he was familiar with mercantile life; he might have some money or he might be very poor, she had not the least idea which it was; he might be of an old and honored family, or his father might have been a blacksmith, and his mother even now a washer-woman. She admitted to herself that she knew nothing at all about it; and she was obliged also to admit that so far as she herself was concerned she did not care.
But Mr. Shipley was very different. Most assuredly he would care. How could he understand why she should be able to feel such perfect trust in this stranger? If she should try to tell him of those wonderful prayers she had heard from Mr. Robert's lips, what would such evidence be to him? If she should try to tell him how by this man, she had been led into the light of love and trust that glowed brighter and stronger with every day, how little information it would give him! What an utter mystery would such language be to him!
As she thought of all these puzzling things, what wonder that she turned her pillow many times in search of a spot to rest, and gave a great many long-drawn sighs?
It so happened that Mr. Roberts, while he had not troubled himself to enlighten Flossy as to his position, and prospects, had by no means supposed that her father would be as indifferent to these small matters as she was; he had come armed with credentials, and introductions. Overwhelming ones they were to Mr. Shipley. He waited for no introductions nor explanations to come from Flossy.
Instead, the very next morning, at the earliest hour that business etiquette would allow, he sought Mr. Shipley at his business office, presented his card and letters, and made known his desire to transact mercantile business with him in the name of his firm. And the rich man, Mr. Shipley, arose and bowed before him.
Was he not a representative? nay, a junior partner of the firm of Bostwick, Smythe, Roberts & Co.? Names world-renowned among mercantile men. Could human ambition reach higher than to have flattering offers of business from that great House? than to be actually sought out by this young partner, singled from among all the merchant princes of the city, as the one to be taken into business confidence!
Mr. Shipley's ambitious dreams reached no more dizzy height than this.
Mr. Roberts was invited, urged to accept the hospitalities of his home, to make the acquaintance of his family, to command his horses, his carriage, his servants, in short, to become one of their family so long as he could be prevailed upon to remain in the city.
But Mr. Roberts had more communications to make; he frankly announced that he was already acquainted with his family, at least with that portion of it, which was of enough importance to include all the rest; of course, he did not say this to the father, and yet his manner implied it, as he meant it should. Mr. Roberts was frank by nature; he no more believed in concealments of any sort, than did Flossy.
Then and there, he told the story that the two easy chairs in the library knew about. He even apologized earnestly for seeking the daughter first. It had not been his intention; he had meant to call on the family; but they were absent, and he found Miss Flossy alone. And—well, if Mr. Shipley had been particular, as assuredly he would have been, if Mr. Roberts had not been of the firm of Bostwick, Smythe, Roberts & Co. it might have been embarrassing to have explained the very precipitate result of his call.
But, as it was, Mr. Shipley was so amazed and so bewildered, and so overwhelmed, with delighted pride, that he would almost have forgiven the announcement that Mr. Roberts was already his son-in-law, without leave or license from him. As it was, all the caution had to be on Mr. Robert's side. He asked that letters might be sent to his brother-in-law, Mr. Smythe, to his father, Mr. James Roberts, proving, not his financial standing, the unmistakable knowledge of the private affairs of the firm that had established him there, but of his moral character, and his standing in the Christian world.
Do you believe that Mr. Shipley felt the necessity? Not he! Had he not been willing more than that, anxious that his daughter's fortune should be linked with Col. Baker's? Did he not know what was Col. Baker's standing in the moral and Christian world? After all, is it any wonder, when there are such fathers that many daughters make shipwreck of their lives? As for Mr. Roberts, he was almost indignant:
"The man would actually sell her, if by that means he could be recognized in business by our house."
If it had been any other young man than himself, who was in question, how his indignation would have blazed at such proceedings! But since it was himself, he decided to accept the situation.
As for Flossy, she did not look at the matter in that light; when she found that all the perplexities and clouds had been so suddenly and so strangely smoothed and cleared from before her way, she thought of those hours of wakeful anxiety that she had wasted the night before; and of how, finally, she had made her heart settle back on the watchful care and love of the Father who was so wise and so powerful, and in the quiet of her own room, she smiled, as she said aloud:
"'Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.' How much pleasanter it would have been to have committed it in the first place, before I wearied my heart with worrying over what I could not lift my finger to make different!"
So in less time than it has taken me to tell it, the rough places smoothed suddenly before Flossy Shipley's feet. She was free now, to go to parties, or to prayer-meetings, or to stay at home according to her own fancy, for was she not the promised wife of a partner of the firm of Bostwick, Smythe, Roberts & Co.?
It transpired that Mr. Roberts had come to make a somewhat extended stay in the city, to look after certain business affairs connected with the firm, and also to look after certain business interests of the great Master, whose work he labored at with untiring persistence, always placing it above all other plans, and working at it with a zeal that showed his heart was there.
Flossy, during these days, took great strides as a learner in Christian work. Among other things, she was let into the mysteries of some of the great and systematic charities of the city, and found what wonderful things God's wealth could do, placed in the hands of careful and conscientious stewards. She had thought at first that it made no difference at all to her, whether Mr. Roberts had to work for his daily bread, or whether he had means at his disposal; but very early in her acquaintance with him she learned to thank God, that great wealth had been placed in his hands, and so, was to be at her disposal, and that she was learning how to use it.
Some of her new experiences had their embarrassing side. Mr. Roberts had been but a few days in the city, when he had certain proteges which circumstance had thrown in his way, in whom he became deeply interested. One of these, he engaged to take Flossy to visit.
"They are very poor," he had said to her, supposing that thereby he enlightened her.
Now Flossy had small knowledge in that direction. There was a certain old lady living at the extreme east end who had once been a servant in their family, and Flossy's nurse. In her, Flossy was much interested, and had been often to see her. She kept house in a bit of a room that was always shining with cleanliness; her floor was covered with bright rag carpeting; her bed was spread with a gay covered quilt, and her little cook stove glistened, and the bright teakettle sputtered cheerily. This was Flossy's idea of poverty.
Therefore, when she arrayed herself for a wintry walk with Mr. Roberts, there was to her mind no incongruity between the rich black silk, the velvet cloak, the elegant laces, and costly furs, and the "very poor family" she was about to visit. Why should there be? She had trailed that same silk over old Auntie Green's bright colored rag carpet a good many times without experiencing any discomfort therefrom.
As for Mr. Roberts, he regarded her with a half amused smile which she did not observe, and said nothing. Probably he had an idea that she would soon be wiser than she was then.
"It is too far to walk," he said, as they reached a point where street cars diverged in many directions; so he hailed a passing car, and during the talk that followed, Flossy was conveyed to a portion of the city she not only had never seen before, but that she did not know existed.
She looked about her in dismay as she stepped down from the car, and during the short rapid walk that followed, had all she could do to rescue her silken robes from contact with awful filth, and to keep her dainty handkerchief applied to her poor little nose. Rapidly and silently they made their way to a long, high building, whose filthy outside stairs they descended and found themselves in a cellar the like of which Flossy had never dreamed of.
A dreadful pile of straw covered over by a tattered and horribly dirty rag that had once been a quilt, on this bed lay a child not yet ten years old, whose deathly pale face and glassy eyes told the story of hopeless sickness. No pillow on which to lay the poor little head with its tangled masses of yellow hair, nothing anywhere that told of care bestowed or necessary wants attended to. Over in another corner on another filthy heap of straw and rags, lay the mother, sick too; with the same absence of anything like decency in everything that pertained to her.
Utter dismay seized upon Flossy. Could it be possible that human beings, beings with souls, for whose souls her blessed Saviour died, were left to such awful desolation of poverty as this! Mr. Roberts promptly turned upside down an old tub that was used to doing duty as a chair, and seated her thereon, while he went forward to the woman.
"Have you had your dinner to-day?" was the first question he asked.
"Yes, I have; and thank you kindly, too," she added gratefully. "The woman took the money and bought meat as you told her, and made a broth, and I and the little girl had some; it was good. The little girl took quite a few spoonfuls of it and said it tasted good; it did me more good to hear her say that, than it did to eat mine," the poor mother said, and a wistful motherly look went over to the heap of rags in the corner.
"I am glad that she could eat it," he said simply. Then he further told that he had been arranging for some things to be brought to make both of them more comfortable; they would be here soon, could the woman who made the broth come in and attend to them?
The sick woman shook her head. She was gone for the day: would not be back till dark, then would have to get her children's supper, and do her washing that very night. "She's awful poor," the woman added with a heavy sigh. "We are all of us that; if I could get up again, I could do something for my little girl I most know I could, but, as it is—" And then there was that hopeless sigh.
Meantime Flossy, after sitting with a distressed and irresolute face for a few minutes, had suddenly risen from her tub and gone over to the little girl. Bending beside her they had talked together in a low voice, and as Mr. Roberts turned to see if she had endured the scene as long as her nerves would admit, she turned towards him and there was more decision in her voice than he had ever heard before.
"Mr. Roberts, can you find some clean water for this basin, and haven't you a large handkerchief with you? This poor child must have her face washed. She says her head aches very badly; that will help it. And Mr. Roberts, can't you go out immediately to the store and get some clothes for this bed, and a pillow, don't they have such things in stores?"
"I have seen to that," he said; "there will be some bed clothing here, and other necessaries very soon; but how can we manage to have the beds made up? I have ordered bedsteads and mattresses, and bed clothing has been prepared; but I have failed thus far in getting anyone to help arrange them?"
"Can't you set up a bedstead?" asked Miss Flossy.
"Why, I think I could," he answered her meekly.
"Very well, then, I can make the beds. As for the child, she must have a bath and a clean dress before she is ready for any bed. I can tell you just what to do, Mr. Roberts; you must go down to the east end, No. 217 South Benedict Street and find my old Auntie Green, and tell her that she is needed here just as soon as she can get here; tell her I want her; it will be all right then. In the meantime, this child's face must be washed and her hair combed. I see there is a kettle behind that stove, could you manage to fill it with water, and then could you make a better fire? Then, I can stay here and do a good many things while you are gone."
While our little Flossy was talking, she was removing her lavendar kid gloves, and pinning up out of sight her lace ruffles. Then she produced from some one of the bewildering and dainty pockets that trimmed her dress, a plain, hemstitched handkerchief, which she unceremoniously dropped into the tin basin, and announced herself all ready for the water.
"But, Flossy," said her embarrassed attendant in dismay, "you can't do these things, you know; wouldn't it be better to come with me, and we will go after this Auntie Green and tell her just what to do, and furnish the means to do it with. You know you are not used to anything of this kind."
"I know it," she said quietly. "I never knew there was anything like this in the world; I am bowed in the very dust with shame and dismay. There is very little that I know how to do, but I can wash this poor, neglected child's face. Go right away, please; there is no time to lose I am sure."
What swift deft fingers she had to be sure. He could not help stopping for a moment in his bewilderment to watch her; then he went, and meekly and swiftly did her bidding. There was much done during that afternoon. Mr. Roberts quietly sinking into the errand man who was useful, chiefly because he could promptly do as he was told; and he felt with every additional direction and with every passing moment an increased respect for the executive abilities of the little girl, whom he had looked forward to rousing by degrees to a sense of the importance of this work, and gradually to a participation in other than the money charities of the day.
When they went away from that door, as they ascended the filthy stairs again, she said:
"What an awful thought that human beings exist in such places as this, and that I did not know it and have done nothing for them!" She was certainly not exhausted, not overcome with the stench and the filth, though there was water dripping at that moment from her rich silk dress. She noticed it, and as she brushed off the drops, she said:
"Evan, if you knew, I wonder that you did not tell me to wear my Chautauqua dress. I shall know better next time. I must have that poor little girl cured; there are ever so many things to do, oh Evan, you must teach me how."
"You need no teacher," he said softly, almost reverently, "other than the divine Teacher whom you have had. I am become a learner."
