Mrs. Wilson warmly approved of the idea, but seriously added to Ellen’s discomfiture by remarking—
“You had better begin to-morrow, my dear. I wonder we none of us had the sense to think of it before; and, nurse, if you will begin from to-morrow to give me my breakfast punctually, we will have prayers here in my bedroom directly afterwards. Yes, my dear,” she went on, in reply to an exclamation of dismay which Ella could not altogether repress, “it is so long since I have attended a service I feel a perfect heathen, and need to be read to quite as much as Mrs. Moore.”
And having once taken the idea into her head, nothing would induce Mrs. Wilson to give it up; though, on nurse’s advice, she agreed that they should meet in the evening instead of the morning, as being a more convenient time for an invalid.
Mrs. Wilson had one or two books of prayers in the house, but as they were old and most of them rather too long, she told Ella to look through the books beforehand, and select a prayer each day, marking with a pencil which portions to omit. At the same time she talked over with her the most suitable portions of the Bible to select for reading.
“You know, Ella, that, as St. Paul tells us, the whole Bible is given us for our instruction, yet some portions are not easily understood unless a rather long passage is read at a time, and as that cannot be managed at daily prayers, it needs care to choose a portion which gives a complete thought in a small compass, so that those who, like Mrs. Moore, get no other reading during the day, have something definite to carry away with them.”
It was with considerable inward trepidation and a trembling of voice she could not altogether control that Ella made her first attempt at conducting the family prayers the next evening; but she struggled to forget herself, and as she went on her voice grew steadier, till, when they all repeated the Lord’s Prayer together in closing, she was able to join in the spirit of the prayer as simply as anyone present.
It was with sincere pleasure that, a few days afterwards, Ella helped her aunt downstairs for the first time; but her delight that her patient had advanced so far towards recovery was mingled with a certain amount of nervousness lest she should find anything to disapprove of in the rooms, which she had not seen since she was first taken ill. For several days the servants had been expending a good deal of hard work on polishing the furniture and rearranging all the ornaments of the sitting-rooms, and Ella had exercised all her skill in arranging flowers to make the rooms look bright to welcome the invalid, so that Mrs. Wilson could not but be pleased, and she expressed her approval with a warmth which greatly gratified Ella, and which sent Sarah into the kitchen with a beaming face to tell Mrs. Moore that—
“Missis do seem pleased like, and she says to me, ‘Sarah,’ she says, ‘I never saw that bookcase look so bright before; why, you must have got a patent polisher.’”
This well-earned praise was very gratifying to all the household, and spurred them on to fresh exertions.
Ella’s interests just now were chiefly centred in the fowls. She took the greatest care of the sitting hens, and brought her aunt each day a minute report of their welfare. When the time drew near for the chickens to appear, her eagerness became so great that she would have disturbed them a dozen times in the day to see how they were getting on but for the exhortations of her aunt.