“Well, Herbert has given me a place in the factory, and he and Elsie insist that I make my future home with them. It rather strikes me that you are left out in the cold in consequence.”
Tears sprang to Margaret’s eyes, and with a heartbreaking sob she buried her head in her arms as she leaned against the table.
“My dear sister,” cried Gilbert quickly. “My joke is rather rough I’ll admit; but I’ve a little excuse for it.” And stepping to the hall door, he beckoned mysteriously to some one standing there. Margaret raised her head apprehensively, and saw Dr. Ely with smiling face standing upon the threshold.
“Here is a gentleman,” said Gilbert soberly, “who thinks he would like to have a home made for him.” And with an ostentatious bang to the door he slipped away.
CONCLUSION.
Of the remaining members of the little circle there are but few words to speak. In Alice Houghton and Helen Mason the Society of Universal Brotherhood finds able coadjutors. Life becomes broader and fairer to them as they realize the existence of a common bond in humanity and a universal creed of brotherly love.
Slowly, but surely, the seed sown in doubt, darkness, and tribulation has begun to bear fruit, and Gilbert, the powerful leader of the new movement, often blesses the memory of the hours of sorrow and trial which have made these helping influences spring from a soil watered by tears and harrowed by privation. Antoine’s violin and marvellous gift of improvisation are the delight of an enthusiastic public, and Lizzette’s brown face, with the wrinkles growing a little deeper as the years go by, wears a look of supreme pride and contentment as she contemplates his progress. A cherished member of Herbert’s home, she is at once housekeeper, friend, and companion.
The marriage of Herbert and Elsie is one of those perfect unions in which oneness of spirit, heart, and effort keep an unbroken bond. They have seen their endeavors paying them a tenfold increase in the growing tide of thought and prosperity overtaking the workingmen and women and widening out into an irresistible current of human kindness. Children have come to them, endowed with the same warm, generous natures, who are never so happy as when smoothing a wrinkle out of papa’s tired brow, or making a dimple come in mamma’s pretty cheek. Elsie, the idol of her home, and beloved alike by the prosperous circle of universal brotherhood, and the thrifty, contented colony at Idlewild, often delights, with children clinging to her skirts, and a crowing baby perched on Herbert’s shoulder, half-laughingly, half-earnestly, to proclaim him the founder and father of America’s New Aristocracy of heart and brain.
THE END.