“We did not bring her, because she would not come,” replied Emmie.
“I suppose that in an old haunted house, country cooks and country footmen are necessary evils, and must be endured,” said Vibert, attempting to look philosophic. “But I hope that you, as mistress of the establishment, have spoken pretty sharply to Hannah. I hope that you have given her a fright.”
“Hannah is a good deal more likely to give me one,” answered the smiling Emmie. “I think of making over to you, Vibert, the office of scolding the cook.”
“I should find that a more formidable task than that of facing all the ghosts of Myst Court,” was the merry lad’s playful reply.
CHAPTER XV.
THE FIRST VISIT.
“Bruce is right; whenever a disagreeable duty is to be done, the sooner we get over it the better,” said Emmie to herself, as, accompanied by Susan, she started on her walk before luncheon on the following day. A cloud of care was on the youthful face which looked so fair and gentle under the shade of the broad-brimmed garden-hat which the maiden wore. Emmie had “screwed up her courage to the sticking-point,” and had resolved not to return home without having performed her self-allotted task of, at least, entering two of the cottages inhabited by her father’s tenants. The young lady had a couple of fly-leaves in her hand, with their attractive pictures outermost,—these were what Bruce had called her ammunition; but the timid recruit had a reserve, on which she counted more, in the form of a half-crown slipped into her left glove, ready to be produced in a moment. There are many district visitors who may remember the time when they started on their first campaign as reluctantly and as timidly as did the inexperienced Emmie.
It may have been observed that the maiden undertook her work simply as a hard duty. She was urged onwards by a brother’s counsels, and pricked by the goad of conscience. There was in Miss Trevor none of the hopeful, earnest spirit which hears the Master’s call, and answers it with the cry, “Here am I; send me!” Emmie had indeed prayed for help in entering on her new sphere, but her prayer was not the prayer of faith. She did not realize that God could indeed make her a channel through which His stream of blessing might flow on a parched and thirsty land. She did not believe that her dumb lips might be so opened that her mouth might show forth His praise. Emmie had a profound mistrust of her own powers. Such mistrust is safe and may be salutary; but she confounded that innocent diffidence with what was really mistrust of God. The girl knew her own weakness; so far, all was well; but there was unbelief in not resting on the almighty strength of her God. Emmie would have been startled and shocked had the truth been clothed in words, but she was really regarding the Most High as a Master who commands that bricks should be made without giving the needful straw, as a Leader who sends forth feeble recruits to the fight all unprovided with armour. The maiden’s courage was not sustained by the thought, I will go in the strength of the Lord God; nor did she rest on His promise, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. It was not the love of God, but the dread of incurring His displeasure, which made the poor, hesitating, unwilling girl combat the fear of man.