Life in the Ark went its broken way with a kind of regularity. Madam Speckbom waged her silent war with Dr. Bentzen; Miss Falbe toiled on with her school and with her brother; and “the gang” led their mysterious life above.
For a long time Elsie kept from going to the attic until one day she heard old Schirrmeister playing. She had such a longing to see if he was alone; there could be no harm in that.
He was not alone; but when she was once there, she staid there anyhow. And little by little, all became as before; except that now she did everything to keep her visits a secret from Miss Falbe.
Such was Madam Speckbom’s Ark, and in all that, Elsie grew up.
II.
“YES, but we must bear in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that it not only concerns us here to come to the help of oppressed humanity in the aggregate; but that we have set ourselves at the task of working within distinct boundaries. Therefore, while with all my heart I can concur in the views advanced by Consul With, at the same time, I must insist that we should not go beyond our proper limits. It is possible enough that need—and what now especially interests us, moral depravity among young girls—that it may be just as great—yes, perhaps much greater in St. Paul’s parish than here in St. Peter’s. But I believe, indeed, that if our labors are really to bring forth visible fruits for blessing, we should confine ourselves to the bounds indicated by God himself, and that is—I think—our own parish.”
“Oh, how true that is that the chaplain says;” said Mrs. Bentzen joyfully. “It is just as it was before I took my own poor. All that I gave, that we poured forth, it disappeared without doing any good, and there were only more and more, who came and begged. But now I only let the maid say: ‘We have our own to take care of.’ So one is sure that no unworthy person gets it, and so one can see the invisible fruits—no, blessed fruits. How was it the chaplain expressed it; it was at once so true and so graceful?”
“Visible fruits for blessing,” said the chaplain with a modest blush.
“Yes—that was it,” said the lady, and repeated the words half aloud, so as to remember them.