“Are you sure that you have forgiven me—quite sure—in the way that God forgives? Come and stand where I can see your face.”
Allison in her surprise at his words neither answered nor moved.
“For ye see, if ye were to fail me, I doubt I could hardly keep hold of the Lord himself. If there is one thing that the minister has said oftener than another, it is this, that when God forgives He also receives. You believe this surely? Come and stand where I can see your face.”
Allison laid down her work, and came and stood not very near him, but where the light fell full upon her.
“I cannot but be sorry for—what happened, but I bear no anger against you for it now. Yes, I have forgiven. I wish you no ill. I wish you every good. I am far sorrier for you than I am for myself. God sees my heart.”
She did not need to prove her words. He knew that they were true. If she had not been sorry for him, if she had not forgiven him, and had pity upon him, why should she have come to him at all? But God’s way went beyond that. He not only pitied and pardoned, He received, loved, saved. But he was afraid to say all this to her.
“In sickness and trouble she has been willing to stand by me, as she stands by all suffering creatures. That is all. And she is not one of those women who long for ease and prosperous days, or for anything that I could offer her to tempt her. I must just content myself with what she freely gives, nor ask for more.”
Then he turned away his face, and Allison did not move till he spoke again.
“You could help me greatly with the doctor, if ye were to try.”
Allison made a gesture of dissent.