"Where is the child?" asked Carolina.
"She is at the Exmoor Hospital. Her aunt, Sue Yancey, brought here there last week for an examination. They are trying to gain Colonel Yancey's consent to an operation."
"How do you know all this?" asked Kate's mother.
"I went there to take some flowers to-day, and I saw this child,--she is a little beauty,--and I asked Doctor Shourds who she was and he told me. The trouble is with her ankles. Her feet are perfectly formed, but they turn in and she can't bear her weight upon them, nor walk a step."
"She can walk!" said Carolina, in a low, earnest voice. "God, in His Divine Love, never made a crippled baby!"
Something smarted in Mr. Howard's eyes. He, was no believer in Christian Science, but he loved little children, and Carolina's tone of deep and quiet conviction wrenched his heart.
"Carol, Carol!" wailed Kate, wringing her nose and mopping her eyes, with utter disregard of their redness, "you do make me howl so!"
"Carolina," said Mr. Howard, suddenly, "you know that I do not personally subscribe to the teachings of your new religion, but I am an observer of human nature, and I know the hall-marks of real Christianity. I have seen you to-night keep your temper under trying circumstances, defend your faith with spirit, and exemplify the command to love your enemies, and I want to tell you that if there is anything I can do toward financing a plan to buy Guildford from Colonel Yancey, and installing you there to pursue your life-work, you can count on me."
Carolina made an attempt to speak, but her eyes swam in tears, and she buried her face in her arm.
"Oh, daddy! daddy! D-dear old daddy!" cried Kate, dancing up and down in her excitement. "I knew y-you were up to something! Y-you may not care for C-Christian Science, b-but, when you s-see a good thing, you know enough to p-push it along!"