"Yes," she said, "I'm nearly grown up, am I not?"
He kissed her, and as she tripped off he said to me, laughing, "Well, what do you think of my nearly grown-up companion?"
"She is a sweet child," I said. "How did she come to be called Vera? And when are you going to introduce me to Lady Vancome?"
"So you don't even yet understand," he said, "the mystery? Listen while I explain. When Vera Vancome had lived with the children whom she had gathered round her for three years, her whole nature became changed. The new interest, the new love which grew up in her heart for the motherless little ones drove out of her nature the desire for self-gratification which heretofore had been her curse; yet habit is so strong, moulding as it does the brain and warping the will, that as long as the body lives, any tendency to an evil that has once been encouraged will continue, though perhaps with weakened force; and until the spirit is set free by death from these self-made bonds; love, which should be a spontaneous pleasure, is still at times marred by effort, and loses thereby much of its usefulness and beauty. When this is the case it becomes necessary for the soul's final perfection on earth that it should be born again into the body of a little child, which takes the form of the ennobled spirit. Thenceforth it is free from the tendency to evil which the influence of past years had engraved on its former body and mind. In other words, when a soul outgrows its body, it is time to cast off the old shell and take one more in conformity with a higher development. This may seem a strange thing to you, but it is a common experience of daily life, and accounts both for the inequality of human nature and also for the reason why we find but a small proportion of men or women seemingly fitted for a high state of spiritual life. We see many in the various transition stages, but few who have reached a final growth; the sixth form, as it were, of our earthly school, when the scholars are ready to go forth into a wider universe of action and experience.
"And thus it came about in Vera's case. Her body, weakened by continual work and the constant fight against her lower nature, was thereby made sensitive to the first attack of illness. A child, who had lately come to the home, developed diphtheria. The disease spread quickly among the other children; it was therefore necessary to isolate them, and Vera, much against Agnes' wish, determined to act as their nurse. While doing so she caught the disease. It was a pathetic sight to see her, even after she had taken the complaint, struggling to minister to the little ones around. She absolutely refused to be separated from them, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the nurse and the express orders of the doctor.
"One night while the nurse was sleeping, a little child who was very ill, began crying in its delirium and calling Vera by name; until nearly unconscious herself, she got up, and tottering over to the child, began stroking its head, and trying to calm its fears. The little one soon ceased its rambling and fell into a quiet sleep, but Vera still knelt by its side; she had lost consciousness of all around her.
"The nurse was roused some hours later by the crying of one of the children, and to her horror she found Lady Vancome still kneeling by the side of one of the cots. She touched her, but she did not move. The time had come--her new body awaited her.
"At the same hour a child was born. Into the more perfect body, free now from the evil tendency of a misspent past, her spirit entered."
"And the child?" I said.
"Is the baby Agnes rescued; is the little girl you have just seen. This is the divine order of life. Moved into the home which Vera founded, under the protection of Agnes whom she loved, she learned the first lesson of her new life. Thus, often do our deeds of mercy return to us again. We cast our bread upon the waters, and find it after many days. And thus, alas! do we also curse ourselves by acts of selfishness, reaping in future years the harvest of pain which we so thoughtlessly scattered in the past."