“Excuse me, my dear madam,” he said. “I had no thought of intruding upon your privacy, but—”
“You are entirely excusable, sir,” she answered gently, and with an effort to recover her composure; “this room is public to you and your children, and you have a perfect right to enter it unceremoniously when you will. Will you take a seat?”
“Although I merely stepped in to get my paper, which I carelessly left here, I shall accept your invitation with pleasure, dear madam, if you will allow me the privilege of talking with you as a friend,” he said, in a deeply sympathizing tone. “I can not be blind to the fact that you are in trouble, and if in any way I can assist you, it will give me sincere pleasure to do so.”
Then with the greatest delicacy he offered financial assistance, if that were what she stood in need of.
“Sir, you are most kind,” she said, with grateful emotion, “but it is not that; it is something far worse;—it is that this wicked, rebellious heart will not submit, as it ought, to the cross He—my blessed Lord and Master—has laid upon me. Oh!” clasping her hands together, while the big tears streamed down over her pale and sunken cheeks, “I fear—I very much fear—I hae loved the creature more than the Creator, and that this is why this cross has been laid upon me; this cross, so heavy that it bears me to the earth!”
She sank sobbing into a chair.
He drew up another and seated himself beside her. “Dear madam,” he said, in moved tones, “we have not a high-priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
“I know not what your trouble is, but sure I am that thus you may find grace, mercy, peace, and the fulfillment of the promise, ‘As thy days, so shall thy strength be!’”
“Yes, yes, I know,” she sobbed, covering her face with her hands, “and whiles I’m willing to bear whatever He sends; but at times the cross seems heavier than mortal strength can endure, so that it crushes me to the very earth! O Willie, my Willie, how happy we were in those early years o’ our married life, when you were all the world to me and I was all the world to you! but now—I can no longer feel that you are mine. Others hae come between us; they have stolen your love from me, and my heart is breaking, breaking!
“But, oh, this is sinful, sinful! Lord, help a poor, frail worm of the dust to be obedient and submissive to Thy will!” She seemed to have forgotten the captain’s presence, but light was dawning upon him.