“Yes; it was a wonderful escape,” Elsie returned in tones quivering with emotion. “I can never be thankful enough for the spared lives of my children. Would Zoe care to see her mother just now, do you think?”
“Yes, yes, indeed, mother! Shall I take you to her now? Our guests will excuse us, I know, and we will leave the others to entertain them.”
Zoe, lying on the couch in her dressing-room, the crib with its sleeping little occupants within reach of her hand, started up with a glad cry, “O mamma, dear mamma, how glad I am to see you!” as her husband and his mother came softly in and drew near where she lay.
Elsie took her in her arms and held her close with low-breathed words of tenderness and love. “My dear girl! my dear daughter! thank God that I have you safe in my arms again. How little I thought of such danger when we parted an hour ago, and oh! to have lost you—my sons—Edward and Herbert, and the darling babies, or any one of you!—ah, it is almost too terrible to think of for a moment.”
“Yes, mamma dear; even the sudden danger, though we all escaped, gave me a shock that has completely unnerved me. I cannot forget for a moment how near we were to death—so sudden and dreadful—escaping only as by the skin of our teeth.”
She shuddered and was silent for a moment, still clinging to her mother, and held fast in her loving embrace; then in a low, sweet voice, “Mamma, dearest mamma,” she said, “this terrible experience, this narrow escape from a sudden, awful death, has proved to me a blessing in disguise. I have given myself to God and feel that he has taken me for his very own child; and oh, amid all my suffering from shattered nerves, there is a sweet peace in my heart such as I have never known before!”
“My dear, dear child!” Elsie exclaimed with emotion, “no sweeter, no gladder tidings could have reached me. It is an answer to prayer offered for years that you—my Edward’s wife—might learn to know and love the Lord who shed his own precious blood that we might have eternal life.”
“Yes, mamma, I wonder at myself that I could have ever resisted such love, that I did not give him my whole heart years ago, and strive to serve him with all my powers.”
“Yes, dear little wife,” Edward said with emotion, “what seemed to us so terrible at the time has turned out a real blessing in disguise.”
“So may every trial prove to you, my dear children,” said his mother. “I must leave you now; and Zoe dear, go to sleep in peace, fearing no evil. Remember and rest upon those sweet words: ‘The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.’”