“You see, madam,” said Annie, “your nest is made for you. You have been permitted to flee away from your enemies! now you are not to have wings, for the sails of the vessels are out of sight, and this makes it plain that here is to be your nest. It is but a stormy place to abide in, to be sure; but if Christ be sought, He is here to command peace, and the winds and the sea obey Him.”
“I cannot stay here,” sobbed Lady Carse. “I cannot give up my hopes and my efforts—the only aim of my life.”
“It is hard,” said the widow, with starting tears. “The last thing that a mother can give up,—the very last thing she can lay freely into God’s hand is her yearning for her children. But you will—”
“It is not my children that I most want. You say falsely that they are the last to be given up. There is—”
“Falsely!” cried Rollo, springing to his feet. “My mother speak falsely! If you dare—”
“Gently, my boy,” said Annie. “We have not heard what the lady means.”
“Be quiet, Rollo,” said Lady Carse. “Your mother speaks falsely as regards me; but I do not say that it is not after her own kind that she speaks. If God gives me to see my children, I will thank him devoutly; but there is another thing that I want more—revenge on all my enemies, and on my husband first.”
Rollo looked breathlessly at his mother. Her face was calm; but he could see in the dim red light its expression of infinite sorrow. She asked her son to help her to rise and go.
“I came,” said she to Lady Carse, “to entreat you to come among us, and rest in a spirit of surrender to God, on His clear showing that He chooses this to be your abiding place; and one reason for my coming was to tell you that the minister has brought his children, lest the sight of a child’s face should move you too suddenly. But I see that your thoughts are on other things; and that your spirit of surrender has yet to be prayed for. Next Sabbath, we are to have worship once more, and—”
“Where?”