"Auntie, there is something, if Uncle Raymond will let you have it. I know I should fall asleep if you read Science and Health to me. I always used to when I was ill before, and Cousin Alicia read it to me, even before I began to understand it."
"I will go to the rectory at once, dear, and ask Uncle for the book. Promise me to lie with closed eyes; and try not even to think about anything whilst I am away."
She would not write, nor send a message, fearing a refusal. As soon as Nurse came to take her place she left the room, and the house. There was a path through the park direct to the rectory. It was less than ten minutes' walk.
The Rector looked up in astonishment as his sister, hatless and coatless (it was a chilly September day), entered the room. "What is it, Emmeline? Is Carol worse?" he asked. Her flushed, distressed face suggested the question.
"I do not know if he is worse. He is just as ill as he can be, and is suffering cruelly. I want you to let me have that book you took from him, Raymond, Science and Health. He thinks if I read it to him he will fall asleep. He has not slept yet, and this is the third day since the accident." The Rector's face, which before had been grave and kindly, now grew stern and resolute. "I am sorry, Emmeline, but I cannot let you have it. That book will never pass from my hands to his as long as I am his guardian. He knows too much already of its pernicious doctrines. Better better--anything than that his faith in its teachings should be strengthened."
"Do you mean better that he should die, Raymond?"
"Yes, Emmeline, better that--even that."
"Oh, Raymond, how can you hold such a thought? I do not know what the book is nor what it teaches. But I do know what is the fruit of it; and who was it said, 'A tree is known by its fruit; a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit'?"
"We need not discuss that, Emmeline. We both know whose words those are. Still, I maintain that the teachings of that book, being pernicious, cannot bring forth good fruit."
"But, Raymond, is not gentleness, faith and love--such as Carol's--good fruit? Jesus to him did not live two thousand years ago. He is living to-day. He is looking to him, as the disciples looked, when the storm arose at sea. His love and his faith are beautiful to witness. I have always tried to teach my children the love of God, but Carol possesses something I have not been able to give them, because I do not possess it myself. I think it is understanding. He seems to understand the Bible much better than I do."