“What will become of Lily, in the mill, too?” She bent and kissed her, and she saw that the little one, though asleep, had tears in her own eyes.
Young as she was, Helen's mind was maturer than might have been supposed. And the problem which confronted her she saw very clearly, although she was unable to solve it. The problem was not new, indeed, it has been Despair's conundrum since the world began: Whose fault that my life has been as it is? In her despair, doubting, she cried:
“Is there really a God, as Mammy Maria told me? Does He interpose in our lives, or are we rushed along by the great moral and physical laws, which govern the universe; and if by chance we fail to harmonize with them, be crushed for our ignorance—our ignorance which is not of our own making?”
“By chance—by chance,” she repeated, “but if there be great fixed laws, how can there be any—chance?”
The thought was hopeless. She turned in her despair and hid her face. And then out of the darkness came the strong fine face of Clay Westmore—and his words: “We must all work—it is life's badge of nobility.”
How clearly and calmly they came to her. And then her heart fluttered. Suppose Clay loved her—suppose this was her solution? He had never pressed his love on her. Did he think a woman could be loved that way—scientifically—as coal and iron are discovered?
She finally slept, her arms around her little sister. But the last recollection she had was Clay's fine face smiling at her through the darkness and saying: “We must all work—it is life's badge of nobility.”
It was Monday morning, and she would take Lily with her to the mill; for the child's work at the spinning frames was to begin that day. There was no alternative. Again the great unknown law rushed her along. Her father had signed them both, and in a few days their home would be sold.
They were late at the mill, but the little one, as she trudged along by the side of her sister, was happier than she had been since her old nurse had left. It was great fun for her, this going to the mill with her big sister.
The mill had been throbbing and humming long before they reached it. Helen turned Lily over to the floor manager, after kissing her good-bye, and bade her do as she was told. Twice again she kissed her, and then with a sob hurried away to her own room.