There was pleasure in escaping from present annoyance; there was pleasure in the thought of a quiet interview with a friend; there was pleasure in bringing comfort to a sufferer who needed it; and there was pleasure—oh! what pleasure!—in the sense of victory over his fears. He had been helped; he had not disgraced his Christian profession; he had acted as his mother would have wished him to act; and the eye of his King was upon him. Even the feeling of his own weakness and proneness to fall was not sufficient to damp this joy; he had found that strength may be given to the weak—that it will be given to those who seek it from above.
Yes, it was with a light step and a bounding heart that Willy passed on his way. How bright and gay the sunshine looked! How green and fair the face of nature, the aspect of all things around disposed the heart of the young boy to hope and gladness!
"I shall doubtless soon hear from mamma," thought he, "and good tidings, I trust, of my poor dear aunt. I shall soon be locked in my mother's arms, and only doubly enjoy my home for this disagreeable beginning to my holidays. I dare say that it is well that I came here; if we had never difficulties to overcome—if we were always sailing in smooth water, where would be 'the trial to our faith?' But I shall be heartily glad to quit this place—heartily glad to see Ivy Lodge, and the face of my own dear mother!"
In a few minutes more Willy was briskly pulling the bell-handle which shone below the brass plate on the attorney's door. The summons was quick and loud, but it needed to be repeated before it was answered by an old, slip-shod woman, who, bent with age and infirmities, bore evidence on her wrinkled face that they had not tended to sweeten her temper.
"Is Master Percy at home?"
"What?" said the old woman, putting her hand to the back of her ear.
"Is Master Percy within?" repeated Willy, raising his voice.
In reply she opened the door a little wider, and pointed towards a room on the ground-floor at the back part of the house. Without waiting to be announced, Willy unclosed the door, and the next moment was shaking Percy's hand.
"I heard you ring. I thought that it was you. I am afraid that you have been kept waiting; but old Deborah is so deaf!"
"Oh I never mind," said Willy, glancing round the low apartment, which looked into a tanner's yard.