"She has cut her hand, Mama, and her leg too, that is what makes her walk like that. Fancy my forgetting it!"
"I will tell Hester to take Lucy to the nursery then. I will come and see to you, dear," said Mrs. Graham to Milly, as she watched them go up to their rooms; then went out again to meet Hester and Lucy, who by this time had also reached the house.
CHAPTER V.
AUNTIE'S LETTER.
Wrong thoughts, when only sent away by a kind deed or loving word, are not really rooted out; they are, as it were, but expelled for a short time. When we only thus send them away, we are like the man in the parable spoken of by our Divine Master. The evil spirit certainly goes, but this is not enough; we cannot sit down with folded hands and say, "It is done—we can rest." No, we have our work still to do. Now that the place is empty, we must fill it anew, but this time with the good and true, or else the evil thought will return, and alas! not alone, but in the words of Holy Writ, "He taketh with him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself"—that is, the wrong thought returns with sevenfold strength, and "the last state of that man is worse than the first."
Thus it was with Lena Graham. The jealous thoughts, that had been showing themselves, were put aside, as it were, for the time being, and unfortunately she did not trouble herself any more about them; and Milly, who was the only person whom she had spoken or even hinted to, that she had such thoughts, was only too glad to dismiss it from her mind, blaming herself for having even allowed the suspicion entrance.
"Lena," said her mother, later in the evening, when she and Aunt Mary were sitting together with the two girls in the drawing-room.
"Yes, Mama," she answered, looking up from the book she was reading.
"What was the meaning of the scene that Hester saw, when she found you on the beach this evening?"
Milly looked up hastily at these words, while Lena said, "I will tell you about the whole afternoon Mama. It was this." And she gave a long account of their doings, appealing often to Milly to confirm what she said; and if she did gloss over the leaving little Lucy alone, it was done almost unconsciously, so easy is it to see, when we wish it, a good reason for our conduct.