[CHAPTER XII.]
NEW LESSONS.
IT was not late when Adam Livesey found himself on the road home, for the conductors of these mission services wisely brought them to a close at nine o'clock. They knew that their hearers would mainly consist of working men who must be in bed betimes, in order that they might be ready to rise early in the morning. It was a common thing for a few to stay and hold a brief prayer-meeting, or for individuals to ask advice from the conductors, but these would sanction no late gatherings which would unfit the men for the duties of the morrow.
Adam shrank from speaking to or being addressed by any one, and he was amongst the first to slip quietly out of the room. He had plenty to think about, and the wish uppermost in his mind was that his wife could have been with him. She would have been put right about the people she called hypocrites. He could understand her feelings about that neighbour who was constantly running about from one religious service to another, whilst neglecting her plainest every-day duties.
Adam could not have quoted the words of Jesus, "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone," but he understood the spirit of their teaching.
Then Adam remembered an experience of his own. It happened during his brief courting days, and when he was very anxious to give his pretty Maggie some little gift. Being unused to make any purchase of the kind, he had gone from window to window, and gazed at the glittering objects within, passing on and on, without being able to make up his mind.
He had wandered far beyond his usual bounds, and entered the great square of the city, in which the principal jewellers' shops were situated. Before the window of one, he stood as if spellbound, for the many ornaments it contained shone so beautifully. He thought they were bits of glass, such as hung from lustres and chandeliers in another great shop he had passed, only very finely cut. There were carriages about the door, and for a long time Adam shrank from entering, and stood, turning over his few hoarded shillings in his pocket.
One grandly dressed customer after another came out, entered a waiting carriage and was driven away, and as others did not take their places, Adam mustered enough courage first to peep round the doorway, and then to enter the shop. An assistant stepped forward and politely asked what he could show him, whilst the faces of the rest manifested surprise at the appearance of this would-be customer. Indeed, they one and all decided to keep a sharp eye on him. He had been observed as he hung about the windows for nearly half an hour past, and was regarded as a suspicious character. What could this rugged fellow in his working clothes be wanting in the shop of the first jeweller in Millborough?
In answer to the assistant's inquiry Adam said, "There's a little thing in the window I thought of buying, if it's not too much money. Please tell me what you want for it."
The assistant invited him to step outside and point out the article, which Adam did, and the young man returned to his place behind the counter, and took the little brooch from the window case, saying—