“It is very, very kind in you to say that, dear Mrs. Landreth,” returned Ethel with a blush and a smile. “I know there are many who would despise me for having worked with my own hands for my daily bread, as do even some of my own dear kindred.”
“Well, dear girl, I should not let that trouble me, since God’s command is ‘Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,’ and Paul bids us ‘Work with your own hands,’ and again, ‘This we command you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.’ The Bible—and the Bible only—is our God-given rule of faith and practice.”
“Yes, I have tried to make it mine,” Ethel said, “and not to care for the cold and scornful looks of those who despise others who labor with their hands. I must go back to my work to-morrow,” she added with a smile, “for I have now been absent longer than was intended when we left home.”
“And I am going with her, mother, to ask her uncles’ consent. She thinks they will give it without hesitation,” he added with an admiring smile into the eyes of his betrothed; “and should they not, I will try argument and persuasion; which should be quite in a lawyer’s line.”
“Yes; but I hardly fear you will need to use much of either,” replied his mother with a look that seemed to say anyone might be proud to claim relationship to her boy.
But a gentle tap on the door of the room interrupted the conversation at that moment, and at a quiet “Come in” from Mrs. Landreth, Stuart Ormsby entered with Blanche upon his arm.
“We have come for your blessing, Aunt Mildred, as the nearest representative of my father and mother,” he said, turning a beaming face upon her, “for this dear girl has promised to be mine; if her uncles do not object, which she assures me they will not. And, perhaps she will give herself to me even if they should prove so unreasonable and unkind.”
“Don’t be too sure of that, Mr. Ormsby,” said Blanche demurely; “one should show great respect for the opinions of one’s elders. Do you not think so, Mrs. Landreth?”
“Yes, dear child,” returned Mildred, drawing the young girl to her and bestowing upon her a tender caress, “and I think we need scarcely fear to do so in this case; for my sister’s son seems to his Aunt Mildred worthy to mate with the best and greatest lady in the land.”
Stuart’s eyes sparkled as he said heartily, “Many thanks, auntie; I could not ask for a higher recommendation than that.”