In a few minutes, the landlady, pale and breathless, burst into the room.
"Oh, ladies! Oh, Mrs. Falconer!" she gasped, "Have you heard? Oh, such a sorrow, such a dreadful blow!" And regardless of everything but this great sorrow, she sank into a chair and sobbed aloud.
Alas! Her news, when she could tell it, was indeed a sorrow. It thrilled the heart of England as no such event had ever done before, and from the palace to the cottage there was mourning, lamentation, and woe. * Death had stricken suddenly where no other kind of blow could have fallen with such mighty weight of trouble. And as the children each clasped the hands of their mother, and gazed in her pale sweet face, they both felt that the loss of property, position, anything they had possessed, was as nothing compared with the anguish it would have been to lose her, their tender, true, best earthly friend.
* Death of the Princess Charlotte.
Then she turned their thoughts to the suffering that no regal state could evade, no lofty titles resist; and they knelt together to pray for God's pitiful help for the stricken mourners around the lifeless form of their most deeply, dearly loved.
That afternoon, Mrs. Falconer was glad to send Guy and his sister to walk in the park and to be alone. Her heart was very full, and she needed time to think and pray, even also to weep; for the news of the morning had touched her deeply, and knew something of the agony of a separation that only death could inflict. Tears of sympathy are like a spring shower, refreshing the parched ground, to be followed by new verdure and fragrance; and in loving prayer for others, the widow almost forgot for the time her own anxieties.
One friend had sought her out, and obtained a ready welcome whenever she chose to come; for she brought in her own large heart much of the Spirit of her Master. And if it were not always manifested in the gentlest, meekest way, it was not because or any self-sufficiency or conceit of her own opinions, but rather from the quick, vigorous grasp which her mind took of things that she deemed worth thinking about. She was, moreover, a woman of business, and went straight to her point, whatever it might be, with very little courtly preface or circumlocution.
Such persons are not very common, and the world rather objects to them; but when natural quickness and decision are softened by Christian love and ruled by Christian principle, they become valuable leaders of thought and action.
God's gracious plan is not to crush out the individualism of human character, but to consecrate and utilize all that is susceptible of sanctifying influence. His gifts are manifold in natural things, and when the supernatural takes possession, it is like a new steersman taking his place at the helm of an ill-directed ship, when she is constrained to yield to a master's hand, and to stand for the destined haven. It is the same ship, the same masts, sails, and tackling, but a new will controls; her course is altered, and all her appliances are made to serve their proper purpose. Some chains may rattle more than others, some timbers creak and strain, but they are doing their duty for all that, and the trifling jar upon sensitive ears is forgotten in their indispensable usefulness.
It is a pity when useful people do not try to be lovable also, because "God is love," and whoever belongs to Him and desires to do His work ought to imitate in his heart as well as his hand. Real kindness and positive service may lose their value in an uncouth manner or ungracious tone, and in a moment turn gratitude to gall.