"You had better get away from them as quickly and quietly as possible," he said. "You see you went with them of your own accord," he added, speaking to Lizzie, "and the only thing they could be accused of was stealing this fruit knife."
Lizzie's ragged forlorn appearance touched the gentleman's heart.
"I scarcely knew her when she called me," said Jack, when he made some comment upon this.
"And you say your father is ill from anxiety about her?" said the gentleman meditatively.
Lizzie stood shrinking back, softly crying, for she was so ashamed of her folly now, so sorry for the mischief she had caused, that she hardly liked to look the gentleman in the face while he and Jack were talking about her.
"I tell you what, my lad. You write to your parents to-night, and tell them you have found your sister, but she is not quite well enough to come home at once. I will write an order for her to be admitted to the hospital to be nursed up a bit, and meanwhile my sister shall try and get a few clothes together for her to go home, and look a little more like a respectable servant than she does now."
So Lizzie was taken at once to the hospital, put into a warm bath, and then went to a clean comfortable bed, such as she had scarcely hoped to sleep in again.
A week of comfortable rest and good food did much to restore Lizzie to her old appearance outwardly, but the real Lizzie was greatly changed from the thoughtless, discontented girl who ran away from her home and her duty that summer Sunday morning. By God's providence she had been changed, and henceforth she might be "worth her weight in gold;" but in a different way from that which either she or Mrs. Stanley intended.
The doctor got a few decent clothes, and gave Jack the money for her railway fare home—he had earned enough to pay for himself—and so, at last, the brother and sister returned; and Lizzie was thankful indeed when she heard that Mrs. Spencer was willing to give her another trial, since it had been clearly proved that she had not stolen the fruit knife.
To her mistress in after years, she proved "worth her weight in gold;" for no one could be more steady and reliable, more cheerful and content, than Lizzie was after her three months' sojourn with the gypsies.