Still Mrs Lee lingered, watching the child with anxious eyes, and now and then sighing deeply Christie sent many a pitying glance towards her wondering if any trouble that she knew nothing of was added to the anxiety with which she regarded her child. She longed to be able to comfort her. Her heart was full of sympathy for her—sympathy which she did not venture to express in words. She did not even let her looks express it, but took up her Bible, that she might not seem to be watching her. Mrs Lee roused herself at last, and turning to Christie, said:
“Mrs Greenly tells me that Mr G., the famous preacher, was in town to-day. And, by the bye, you must have heard him. He preached in — Church this morning. You were there, I suppose?”
“Yes; I was there,” said Christie, with great interest. “There was a strange minister preached; but I didn’t know that he was a great man. That was the reason there was such a crowd of people, I suppose. I wondered why it was.”
“You didn’t like him, then? or you didn’t think him a great man?” said Mrs Lee, smiling.
“Oh, yes,” said she, eagerly; “I liked him. But I wasn’t thinking about him as a great man; I wasn’t thinking of him at all—only of what he said.”
“He told you something new, then?” said Mrs Lee.
“No! Oh, no! Nothing new; nothing that I had not heard many times before. And yet it seemed to come to me as new!” she added, a strange, sweet smile passing over her face.
“What did he say that was new to you?”
“Some things he said that I shall never forget. He was telling us of God’s love to man, shown in many ways, but most and best of all in the work of redemption. It wasn’t new, what he said; and yet—I don’t know how it was—I seemed to see it as I never saw it before.” And again the same bright smile flashed over her countenance.
“The work of redemption?” repeated Mrs Lee; and there was a questioning tone in her voice that made Christie look at her doubtfully before replying.