Straight forward; or, walking in the light

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

"She is very ill," was Mrs. Pomeroy's reply to the questions of the girls at breakfast time. "I have never known her to pass a worse night."

"You don't think her in any danger, do you," asked Annette.

"I cannot say," answered Mrs. Pomeroy. "I always fear that every fresh attack may be the last, and I have never seen her suffer more. She has so little strength to spare."

"Do you think it was crying about her money that brought it on?" asked Delia, who was standing with her arm round Emily's waist.

"Not entirely, though no doubt it helped. I discovered last night that she was out in the morning looking for it, and did not come in till she was thoroughly chilled. It was one of her very few acts of wilful disobedience."

"I recollect now, that we saw her coming down the steps, just as we set out to go to Miss Sampson's," said Delia. "Don't you remember, Emily, that I remarked at the time that I did not believe Mrs. Pomeroy knew it."

"Some people's sins do seem to go to judgment beforehand," remarked Miss Gilbert. "I suppose there are not half a dozen girls in the school so habitually obedient as Kitty. It seems strange that she should be the one to suffer."

"I have sometimes wished that every act of disobedience might be discovered at once," said Mrs. Pomeroy. "One concealed sin is so apt to lead to another."

"How true that is!" thought Emily. "I was terribly afraid that Mrs. Pomeroy would find out that I was in debt at Barton's, and yet if she had, how much wickedness and misery it would have saved me. What is to become of me now is more than I can tell, but I suppose I must face it out. Nobody shall know how I feel, not even Delia. Nobody knows or suspects it, that is one comfort."

Ah, Emily, was not that a terrible mistake? Was there not one who knew every thought and action? Was there not an eye which had followed every wandering step, from the first omission of that evening prayer, to the present time? Was there not one voice that whispered constantly in your ear, "Return, wanderer, while there is time! Repent, confess, and be forgiven?"