"After all, Nan, you won't need pity if you go into the country early in the year," she said. "It's not very nice in London just now. You will escape the dreadful March we get in town, and be able to watch the gradual on-coming of the spring in the woods and lanes. I wish you could go to 'Gay Bowers.'"
"Yes," I said drearily; "it would be more endurable if I were with Aunt Patty."
She was our father's only sister, and our favourite aunt. We were less fond of her husband, some twenty years her senior, and now getting old and infirm. He was a great sufferer from gout, an affliction that is not conducive to serenity and amiability of mind. I had always admired the patience with which my aunt bore with his outbursts of temper.
"Poor Aunt Patty!" said Olive. "I guess she is having a rough time of it now. She said in her last letter, which came the day before yesterday, that uncle was worse than she had ever seen him."
"Then she certainly does not want me there as I am now," I sighed. "Oh, Olive, I feel like a washed-out handkerchief! It is awful to be utterly useless, only a burden on father and mother, when I had hoped soon to be earning a good salary and able to support myself entirely."
"It seems hard, no doubt," said Olive; "but what you've got to do now, Nan, is just to trust. This must be one of the 'all things' that are going to work for your good. Now is the time to show that your faith in God is real and not a mere profession."
I looked at Olive in surprise. Such words had never fallen from her lips before. Frank and free of speech as she appeared, she was not one to say much of the things she held most sacred. But I did not need words to assure me of the reality of my sister's religion.
Just then mother's voice was heard from below calling urgently for Olive. She ran off to obey the summons, and I lay still with closed eyes, wondering whether I had any true faith in God. I had long believed, as I thought, in the love of God, but to what extent had that faith been a living influence in my life? Was it now weighed in the balance and found wanting? The opening of the door made me look up. There stood Olive wearing her hat and coat, and an expression which told me something had happened.
"What is the matter, Olive?" I asked hastily.
"Where are you going?"