“Of course not,” said Elise wisely. “It is a most bad waste of time when we try going back to beginnings. It is better to start right from here. Anywhere is the best place to start. When you go home you start then! You start here by making some new sweet thoughts in your heart. Dear Lucee, please try! Please, for the sake of your Elise who also has to try to be always happy and not remember those blackness behind her. Won’t you, please? I know I am right. Will you try to give her love?”
Lucy, the tears pouring down her cheeks, leaned her head against the shoulder near her.
“I don’t see how I can,” she said huskily. “But I will try. I am so sick of everything the way it is.”
“Of course you are!” said Elise. “One is always seek of wrong. It makes a blackness over everything.”
“What will I do? How will I begin?”
“I cannot tell you,” said Elise. “You will know what to do. Something will tell you. Something always tells. I think it is le bon Dieu. Just trust and you will know what to do and to say. Come, let us go. I hear the meeting talking itself down the stairs. Is your car waiting?”
“Yes,” said Lucy dully as she allowed Elise to lead her through the store. “Oh, Elise, I don’t love her, and I don’t know what to do!”
“It is because of the hatefulness you put in your heart long ago that you do not love her,” said the wise, sad little girl who had suffered beyond her years. She stood at the door of the limousine and smiled at the little girl who sank back so wearily.
“Don’t forget it is now we make those beginnings. And you owe her what your dear papa promised her, your love.” She stepped back with a wave of her hand as the machine started away.
Lucy’s heart throbbed violently as she approached her home. Her one hope was that Mrs. Breen was out, so the moment might be delayed. But as she passed the door of the library she saw Mrs. Breen lying in a low lounging chair. How pale she looked! Lucy was quite startled to see the look of suffering and weakness on the beautiful young face. She had been too blind to notice what had been worrying her father of late. Was it her fault? Had her actions brought her self-made enemy so low? Lucy was shocked.