"Ay, indeed I am more than willing. Zacchæus restored fourfold."
"Yes, the road for you, straight to the bosom of the Father, is very prickly and full of sharp thorns. You have held a high character for honor and respectability. You have a child who loves you, who has thought you perfect. You must step down from your high pedestal. You must renounce the place you have held in your child's heart. In short, you must let your only child, and also the cold, censorious world, see you as God has seen you for so long."
"I don't mind the world, but—my child—my only child," said Mr. Harman, and now he put up his trembling hands and covered his face. "That is a very hard road," he said after a pause.
"There is no other back to the Father," answered the clergyman.
"Well, I will take it then, for I must get back to Him. You are a man of God. I put myself in your hands. What am I to do?"
"You put yourself not into my hands, sir, but into the loving and merciful hands of my Lord Christ. The course before you is plain. You must find out those you have robbed; you must restore all, and ask these wronged ones' forgiveness. When they forgive, the peace of God will shine into your heart."
"You mean the widow and the child. But I do not know anything of them; I have shut my eyes to their fate."
"The widow is dead, but the child lives; I happen to know her; I can bring her to you."
"Can you? How soon?"
"In an hour and a half from now if you like. I should wish you to rest in that peace I spoke of before morning. Shall I bring her to-night?"