“And those three months in which he was finding out the will of God. ‘And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the Ark of the covenant of the Lord that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams.’ He could not help them the first time because their way was not according to His law; their joy, their thankfulness, their sincerity, their carefulness availed them nothing because they kept not His law. Uzza was a priest and should have known the law; David was king and he should have known the law.”
“But he had his second opportunity, despite his mistake.”
“And so, if your desire be according to His will may you have yours; it may be months or years, half your lifetime, but if you study His word and ask for your second opportunity through the intercession of Christ, I am sure that you will have it.”
“Sometimes I am angry, sometimes bewildered, sometimes there is hatred in my heart because I have been deceived and humiliated—sometimes I do not want it back—”
“My dear,” said Miss Jewett, gravely, “discipline is better than our heart’s desire.”
“Is it? I don’t like to think so.”
When the clock in the church-tower struck midnight Tessa lay awake wondering if she could ever choose discipline before any heart’s desire.
Then she crept closer to Miss Jewett and kissed her.
VII.—THE LONG DAY.
With the apple blossoms came Tessa’s birthday. She had lived twenty-five years up-stairs and down-stairs in that white house with the lilac shrubbery and low iron fence. Twenty-five years with her father and mother, nineteen with her little sister, and almost as many with her old friend, Mr. Hammerton; twenty years with Laura and Felix and Miss Jewett, and not quite three years with the latest friend, the latest and the one that she had most believed in, Ralph Towne.