STANDING UP TO THE MARK
Lilian Boyd bathed her mother’s face and hands as usual and prepared her breakfast. Her eyes were brighter, her voice stronger, but the girl noticed that her face seemed a little swollen and the lines about her mouth had lost their flexibility.
“You are surely better. You have more appetite,” yet the tone was not hopeful.
“Oh, my dear, it is nearer the end, and it is best. You will do better without me, and what if you should find someone—a father to be proud of you? Such things have happened, and I may have kept you out of something that was your right. Oh, will God forgive me?”
Lilian caught the thin hand and pressed it to her lips.
“Mother, you must not worry about this. Suppose my own mother was a widow like you going to a new home to earn her living. Why, I might have been put in some Children’s Asylum. And I have had many comforts and a love willing to make sacrifices. I have been a dreamy girl building air castles for the future, but I would have worked hard to make them real. I see now how much is needed and I am not afraid——”
“Oh, if I could think you had lost nothing through my selfish love——”
“But it was your friend who sent us here. And you are not sorry we came?”
“Oh, my child, it was truly God’s providence. Mrs. Barrington has been so good. She will help you to attain your best aims. Since we have been here I have realized the difference between us that I only felt vaguely before. You belong to these people. You have their ways and it is not all education, either. This is why I feel your people could not have been in the common walks of life.”
She paused, exhausted.