She had less cause for discouragement than she supposed. For Brownrig did, now and then, take to heart a gently spoken word of hers; and the words of the Book which his mother had loved, and which brought back to him the sound of her voice and the smile in her kind eyes, were not heard altogether in vain. He had his own thoughts about them, and about Allison herself; and at last his thoughts took this turn, and clung to him persistently.
“Either she is willing to forgive me the wrong which she believes I did her, or else she thinks that I am going to die.”
Dickson did not have an easy time on the morning when this thought came first to his master. When Allison came in she had utter silence for a while. Brownrig took no notice of the newspaper in her hand, and looked away when she took up the Book and slowly turned the leaves. But that had happened before, and Allison read on a few verses about the ruler who came to Jesus by night, and who, wondering, said, “How can a man be born when he is old?”
“Ay! how indeed?” muttered Brownrig. “Born again. Ah! if that might be! If a man could have a second chance!”
And then his thoughts went back to the days of his youth, and he asked himself when and where he had taken the first step aside from the right way, and how it came about that, having had his mother for the first thirteen years of his life, he should have forgotten her. No, he had not forgotten her, but he had forgotten her teachings and her prayers, and his own promises made to her, that he would ever “hate that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good,” and that he would strive so to live and serve God that he might come at last to meet her where she hoped to go. Was it too late now? He sighed, and turned his head uneasily on the pillow. The angry look had gone out of his eyes, and they met Allison’s with a question in them. But he did not speak till she said very gently:
“What is it? Can I do anything for you?”
“Has the doctor been saying anything to you of late?” he asked. “Does he think that my time is come, and that I am going to die?”
Allison’s face showed only her surprise at the question.
“The doctor has said nothing to me. Are you not so well? Will I send for the doctor?” and she laid her cool fingers on his hand. But he moved it away impatiently.
“What I canna understand is, that you should have come at all. You must have thought that I was going to die, or you wouldna have come.”