“But I am still a long way from being a good mission Mem,” said Alicia. “I have now a much higher standard than was mine three years ago, and I feel how very far I fall short of it. Miranda, who was then a poor, ignorant heathen, makes now a better worker than I do.”
“But do we not owe Miranda to you?” cried Robin, in his old impetuous manner. “You pitied her, you rescued her, you brought her amongst us, you have taught her all that she knows.”
“No, Robin; the most precious knowledge of all was, by God’s grace, imparted through you.”
Robin’s eyes glistened with inexpressible joy. He thought, but his lips were silent, that such a privilege might well repay the toil of a lifetime.
Alicia, who had paused a little in her occupation, now resumed it with redoubled energy. She had not looked so fair in Robin’s eyes in her wedding-dress of white satin as she did now in her simple pink print, with her sleeves tucked up and her slender hands all whitened with flour. Robin watched his sister as she mixed and stirred and kneaded.
“Harold is very happy,” he said at last in a dreamy tone. “There is no doubt that ‘two pull together, when yoked twain and twain,’ far better than a solitary worker.”
“That line was written for mission maidens,” observed Alicia; “they are usually placed two and two in their stations.”
“Not only for mission maidens,” said Robin; “surely it holds good with mission couples. What a helper you are to Harold! You cheer him in trouble, you share his joys, you work amongst the wives and daughters of those whose worst hindrances are in their homes. You break away the thorns that would wound your husband, you strengthen his hands in the Lord, you sharpen his weapons for fight. You make Harold realize the truth of that word from Scripture—A prudent wife is a gift from the Lord.”
“May you also prove its truth one day, dear Robin,” said Alicia, with a smile of gratification.
Robin flushed till his very brow was suffused with crimson. Had his sister guessed the secret which he thought that he had so carefully concealed from all?