“No, Mary; you’ve got to provide. He’s not going to set aside the laws of nature to cover our improvidence. That would be to break faith with all creation for the sake of one or two creatures.”
“No; but still, Doctor, without breaking the laws of nature, he will provide. It’s in his word.”
“Yes, and it ought to be in his word—not in ours. It’s for him to say to us, not for us to say to him. But there’s another thing, Mary.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s this. But first I’ll say plainly you’ve passed through the fires of poverty, and they haven’t hurt you. You have one of those imperishable natures that fire can’t stain or warp.”
“O Doctor, how absurd!” said Mary, with bright genuineness, and a tear in either eye. She drew Alice closer.
“Well, then, I do see two ill effects,” replied the Doctor. “In the first place, as I’ve just tried to show you, you have caught a little of the recklessness of the poor.”
“I was born with it,” exclaimed Mary, with amusement.
“Maybe so,” replied her friend; “at any rate you show it.” He was silent.
“But what is the other?” asked Mary.