[CHAPTER IV]
TOM
ONE day Harebell paid a visit to Miss Triggs. She rode over to the village to post a letter for her aunt, and saw the little dressmaker at her cottage door. It was a very easy matter to tie Chrysoprasus to the gate-post.
"May I come in and see your little house?" Harebell asked.
Miss Triggs led the way proudly into her best parlour. The window was shrouded with flowers and muslin curtains. There were fashion papers on the round table, and an unfinished dress or two hanging up on the wall. Harebell thought it a very pretty room; she admired the dried grasses on the chimneypiece, and the bright-coloured pictures on the walls. Then she looked at an illuminated text over the door.
"'He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.'"
"Is that a text?" she asked.
"Yes, isn't it a nice one for a dressmaker?" said Miss Triggs brightly. "I make clothes for people's bodies, but the Lord makes clothes for our souls."
Harebell looked at her with bright grave eyes.
"You're a very good person," she said reflectively. "Do you know, I don't know whether I'm through the Door or not. I have asked God to take me through, but I don't feel any different. How do you know whether you're through or not?"