"The money may make no difference to them," said Ralph; "but it makes all the difference in the world to me."
"But only because you are proud. Why should you not allow men who think well of you to show you a kindness? Why not submit to the failure of your business, and try to find peace here, where there are so many who would be friendly if you would allow them? And Lady Mabel didn't mean her bequest to be used except for the benefit of those to whom she left it."
"I asked Mr. Barton if there was any rule obliging me to spend the money, and he said certainly I might do as I liked," Ralph replied. "Madam, I warned you that I could not promise to be guided by you. You were kind to me, and I thought I should like you to know the plain truth from my own lips; and then you listened so kindly that I was led on to say more than I intended. But I could not change my nature at this time of day, madam. A proud man and a hard man I have always been; giving nothing for nothing, accepting no favours. I've lived so, and I could live no other way. What good would the money do me? I don't want to sink into a mere eating machine, like Mrs. Short. I don't care to seek the company of my neighbours. All I ask is, to be left in peace to go my own way."
"Yet it does not make you happy."
"Happy! How could I be happy? I have lost all I ever loved,—I loved but two, and they are gone. I don't look for happiness, madam,—not in this world."
"Nor in the next," said May Cloudesley, in her soft, sorrowful voice; "for you are not going the way that leads to it."
"Mrs. Cloudesley!" cried Ralph, half startled, half angry. "I am a Christian, madam, I believe. I have never doubted the religion I learned from my mother, the religion that my Annie loved so well."
"You have never doubted it," said May; "but you have never lived it. 'Love is the fulfilling of the law,'—'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.' I have only your own word to go upon, but you say yourself that you have been a proud man and a hard man, keeping far from you all the charities of life. Oh, don't fancy for a moment that your belief is Faith. Faith means Obedience,—Obedience is Love in action. I am not able to make my meaning plain, but my husband will if you will talk to him. Dear Mr. Trulock, do think over what you have told me, and then compare your own life with that of our one perfect Example, who lived on charity, and spent His life in doing good, without return. I have angered you, but indeed I did not mean to do so."
And poor May, overcome both by a feeling of pity and by a sense of inability to make her meaning clear, burst into tears.
Trulock looked very much disturbed. He rose quickly and brought some water, and watched anxiously until she was quite composed. Then he said: