That was what leer mother had said to her when she was Dorothy's age, and many a time afterward; and she was not a servant of God yet, and her conscience reproached her; and her child had never heard such words, and her heart reproached her. As truly as I write it, she pitied Dorothy. Yet, can you understand that this very feeling actually made her voice sharper and her words more impatient when she spoke to her? The human heart unchanged is a very strange and contradictory thing.
But I want to tell you what Dorothy Morgan does not know.
Her mother did discover the immaculate condition of the pudding-kettle, and said aloud—
"I declare, for once this is clean!"
[CHAPTER XX.]
CLOUDS.
I HAVE been tempted to linger over these first weeks connected with Louise Morgan's home-coming in order that you might get a clear view of the surroundings and a true idea of the family life. Now, however, I shall have to take you away into the spring. The long, cold, busy winter, with its cares and opportunities, had passed away, and the buds and blossoms, foretelling of the coming summer, had begun to appear on every hand.
Many changes, subtle and sweet and strong, had been going on in the Morgan household. Dorothy had held steadily on her course; the first lesson in her Christian experience being ever present with her, that in the very smallest matters of life her light might shine for Christ. She was learning the important lesson to be "faithful over a few things." Little realized she the importance of this faithfulness. Not an idea had she of the number of times in which the mother had regarded her curiously, as she looked in vain for careless ways or forgotten duties, and admitted to herself that "something had come over Dorothy, and she only hoped it would last." Oh yes, it would last. Dorothy believed that. She had anchored her soul after the first hours of unrest on the sure promise of His "sufficient grace," and had no idea of doubting him. Not much outside work had she been able to take up. Yet, little by little, came changes. Carey Martyn was full of schemes.
"See here, let us do thus and so," was a favourite phrase of his, and he was growing more and more fond of saying it to Dorothy.
The bright curtains in the parlour had not been taken down again; the old-fashioned sofa still held its place in the coziest corner; and now that the sun was getting around the corner, peeping in at the pleasantest window, the room took a still more cheery look, and Dorothy had fallen into the habit of touching a match to the carefully laid fire almost every evening just after tea, and one by one the different members of the family dropped in.