Rupert's eyes glistened. He was silent for sheer swelling of heart. He gulped down something—and went on presently.
"I was thinkin' of something my old mother used to say. I know I've heard her say it, lots o' times. I don't know what the trouble is, that's a fact—so maybe I hadn't oughter speak; but she used to say that nothing could happen to Christians that would do 'em any real hurt."
"I know," said Dolly, wondering to herself how it could be true; "the Bible says so."—And then conscience rebuked her. "And it is true," she said, lifting up her head; "everything is true that the Bible says, and that is true; and it says other things"——
"What?" said Rupert; more for her sake, I confess, than for his own.
"It says—'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is staid upon Thee;' I was reading it this morning. You see I must be a very poor Christian, or I should not have doubted a minute. But even a Christian, and the best, must be sorry sometimes for things he cannot help," said Dolly.
"Then you were not troubled about yourself just now?" said Rupert.
"Yes, I was! I was indeed, in spite of all those words and a great many others. I believe I forgot them."
"I should think, if God gives people promises, He would like them to be trusted," said Rupert "That's what we do."
Dolly looked at him again as if he had said something that struck her; and then she got up, and taking his arm, set off this time at a business pace. She knew, she said, where to find what she wanted; however, she had gone out of her way, and it cost her some trouble and time to get to the place. It was a store of artists' materials, among other things; and here Dolly made careful purchases of paper, colours, and camel's-hair pencils. Rupert was reassured as to a suspicion that had crossed him, that part of Dolly's trouble might have been caused by want of means; seeing that she was buying articles of amusement with a free hand. Then Dolly went straight home.
All the rest of that afternoon she sat drawing. The next two days, the weather was unfavourable for going out, and she sat at her work persistently, whenever she was not obliged to be reading to her mother or attending upon her. The day following the long-planned visit to the Green vaults was made. In the evening Lawrence came to see them.