CHAPTER IX.
THE TRIAL OF FAITH
To understand Carolina's complete and instant acceptance of thedoctrines of Christian Science in addition to her healing, it isnecessary to take a more intimate view of her character.
A person of little or no understanding, or of little or no depth, wouldnaturally have accepted the boon of restored health, whether she everwent any further in the doctrine or not. But Carolina was different.To her the blessing was in a change of thought. Marvellous as she felther healing to be, her greatest gain was in the peace and happinesswhich descended upon her like a garment.
To be sure she had been in a desperate plight, both physically andspiritually, when this wonderful hand was stretched out to her in herdarkness and despair, yet many to whom it reaches out refuse its graspsimply from a blind prejudice. Having ears, they hear not, nor will theywhen they might. It argues a particularly lovely spirit to be able toaccept so freely and gladly. Carolina was not free from prejudice. Farfrom it. But she was not stupid. Aside from a clear, spiritualunderstanding, to be able to accept Christian Science demonstrates nosmall degree of mentality, clearness of perception, and a capacity forhigher education. The Science of Metaphysics does not appeal to fools,and only wise men pursue it. Christian Science is the only religionwhich calls in any dignified way upon a man's brain. All the othersstuff one's intelligence with cotton wool, bidding the questioner not toquestion but believe. Believe what his ordinary human intelligencerepudiates. "If you don't understand all of me," says popular religion,"skip what you don't understand and go on to the next. If you keep onlong enough you will find something that you can believe without anytrouble. Let that satisfy you. Forget the rest."
But when a metaphysical interpretation of the Scriptures comes alongsaying: "Ask any question you will and I will give you an answer thatwill satisfy the best brains and highest order of intelligence amongyou, for the day of blind belief is past, and the day of understandingis at hand," then the highest compliment which can be paid to thementality of the most brilliant man and woman, is to say: "They areChristian Scientists."
There may be--there are, many erratic minds attracted by ChristianScience, but there are no complete and utter fools among its followers,for the mere fact that a man has sense enough to grope after the verybest, instead of being satisfied with that which never completelysatisfied the mentality of any man or woman of real intelligence, is anevidence that some degree of wit must be entangled in the meshes of hisfoolishness. While on the other hand it is doubtful if there ever was aforty-year old sect in the knowledge of man which numbered the multitudeof brilliant minds which are within the annals of Christian Science.
Carolina, all her life, had been, not only surrounded by, but familiarwith the best. Her father's and mother's brilliance and good taste haddrawn around them many of the finest minds in Europe, so that the girl'smentality was as ripe for the highest form of religion as it was ofliterature or art.
She plunged into the study of it with all the ardour of an enthusiasticintelligence, and heaved a sigh of relief when she realized that at lastshe had found a dignified religion, free from every form ofsuperstition, from all material symbols, and, above all, one which madeit possible intelligently to obey the command, "Be ready always to givean answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is inyou" (1 Peter iii. 15).
Her greatest fear was that she would be unable to curb the hot temperwhich mortal mind had made into the law that it was a Lee inheritance.
She particularly dreaded her first interview with Noel St. Quentin,Kate, and Cousin Lois. She had yet, also, to face Doctor Colfax. Shehad not seen him since, by Mrs. Goddard's advice, she wrote him a franklittle note, saying that her healing had been marvellously hastened byChristian Science, and that she had so much faith in it that she feltcompelled to relinquish all claim on materia medica, but that, in doingso, she wished to acknowledge most gratefully all that his skill hadaccomplished in her case.
It was a hard note to write, for Kate's assertion, which at firstCarolina had indignantly repudiated, that Doctor Colfax was falling inlove with her, had proved true, and Carolina knew that this dismissal ofhim as her physician would indicate that he need expect nothing more ofher in any other capacity, either.
He wrote her a polite but stiff letter of acknowledgment, and soonafterward went away for a brief vacation.
Carolina realized how much antagonism she had aroused among her ownimmediate friends, and she spent many hours consulting Mrs. Goddard howto conduct herself with tact.
When Mrs. Winchester returned from Boston, Carolina experienced herfirst battle with error. She possessed a high spirit, and to see CousinLois sit and look at her in silent despair, with tears rolling uncheckeddown her cheeks, irritated Carolina almost to the verge of madness, sothat instead of waving aloft the glorious banner of a new religion,Carolina found herself longing to box Cousin Lois's ears. Anything,anything to stop those maddening tears!
She could only control herself by a violent effort. Mrs. Winchester,like Kate Howard, was an ardent churchwoman, and to both these womenCarolina's acceptance of Christian Science was the greatest blow whichcould have fallen on them, short of her eloping with the coachman. Theyfelt ashamed, and in no small degree degraded.
"Whatever can you see in it?" demanded Mrs. Winchester, plaintively, oneSunday morning just after she returned from church. "Why need you go totheir church? Why can't you continue in the church you were baptizedinto as a baby? I don't care what you believe, just so you go to theEpiscopal church! It is so respectable to be an Episcopalian! Oh,Carolina, as I sat there listening to that sermon to-morrow--oh,Carolina, how can you laugh when I am so serious!"
"Do forgive me, Cousin Lois, but you couldn't be any funnier if you saidyou had seen something week after next!"
"I am glad to know that a Christian Scientist can laugh," sighed Mrs.Winchester, whose mild persistency in investing the new thought withevery attribute that she particularly disliked was, to say the least,diverting.
"Am I improved or not since I began to study with Mrs. Goddard?"demanded Carolina, with recaptured good humour.
"I don't see any improvement, my dear. To me you were always as nearlyperfect as a mortal could be!"
"Dear loyal Cousin Lois!" said Carolina.
She seldom kissed any one, but she kissed Mrs. Winchester, who blushedwith pleasure under the unusual caress.
"Perhaps," she added, cautiously, "you are a trifle more demonstrative,but I always thought your apparent coldness was aristocratic."
"It wasn't," said Carolina, decidedly. "It was because I didn't care."
"And now?" questioned Mrs. Winchester, wistfully.
"Now," cried Carolina, "I care vitally for everything good!"
"You always did, I think," said Mrs. Winchester. "Even as a child youalways gravitated toward the highest of everything. You are tooremarkable a girl, Carolina, to throw yourself away at this late day ona fad which will die a natural death of its own accord."
"May I be there to see when Christian Science dies!" cried Carolina,brightly. She felt ashamed that she had ever lost patience with any onewho loved her as idolatrously as Cousin Lois.
"Doctor Colfax--I forgot to tell you that I met him on the train, andthat he asked fifty questions about you that I couldn't answer--DoctorColfax will certainly be nonplussed when he sees you walking with onlythat cane. He told me he never expected to see you walk without twocrutches."
"Then you do give Christian Science credit for that much, do you?" askedCarolina.
"Oh, yes. It must have some wonderful power. I simply don't understandit, that's all. And Carolina, it seems so--excuse me, but sodisreputable!"
"Does it? I hadn't thought of it in that light."
"And so unsexing! Don't you have women in the pulpit?"
"Yes. Christian Science recognizes woman as the spiritual equal, if notthe spiritual su
perior, of man."
"There!" said Mrs. Winchester, triumphantly, as if having scored a pointagainst the new religion. "Yet woman caused man's fall!"
"No, she didn't, Cousin Lois. Christian Science doesn't take thatallegory as history."
"Oh, Carolina! Carolina! You are indeed in a sad way when you forsakethe faith of your ancestors! Such disloyalty cannot fail to have adepressing effect upon your character!"
"On the contrary," said Carolina, "it is as exhilarating to kick downall one's old, stale beliefs as a game of football."
At this Mrs. Winchester's asthma returned. There was nothing left forher to do, in her state of mind, but to choke or to swoon.
A few evenings later Doctor Colfax telephoned to Kate that he would dropin for a few minutes after dinner.
"H-he can't stand it for another minute, Carolina!" cried Kate. "I amcrazy to see his face when you walk in without your crutches! C-Carol,couldn't you take an extra treatment or so, and come in without evenyour c-cane?"
Carolina's eyes blazed with joy at this unconscious admission on Kate'spart that she believed even that little in the new faith.
For reply Carolina rose by means of the arms of her chair, and withoutany material aid whatsoever took half a dozen steps.
"Oh, Carol! Carol!" shrieked Kate, bursting into tears. "Y-you nevereven limped! Oh, it's l-like the d-days when Christ was on earth tos-see a m-miracle like that!"
She seized her friend in her arms and almost lifted her from her feet.
"D-do it to-night, Carolina, and we'll knock their eye out! I'll getthe whole family together, a-a-and you j-just walk in like that! Willyou?"
"Yes, if you will go away and let me work over it this afternoon. Anddon't tell anybody!"
"Oh, certainly not! That would spoil the surprise."
"I don't mean for that reason. I mean that outsiders' adverse thoughtwould hinder my work. Mortal mind makes false laws."
"C-could you just as well t-talk United States when you are heaving yourideas at me?" pleaded Kate. "Y-you know I'm not on to the new jargon,and I fail to connect more than half the time."
As Carolina laughed, Kate nodded her head with great satisfaction.
"I am glad to see that Christian Science has not destroyed your royalsense of humour," she said. "Now I'm off to let you w-work!"
But when the door closed behind Kate, a prolonged sense ofdiscouragement seized Carolina. She looked forward to the evening withdread. Kate made fun of it, Doctor Colfax was coming purposely to scoff,and she knew that she was to be made conspicuous because of herreligion.
She tried to walk without her cane, but her knee bent under her and shefell to the floor. Her first impulse was to burst into tears, but, asshe lay there alone, too far from the bell to summon help, apparentlywithout human aid, she fancied she heard the voice of Mrs. Goddardrepeating: "For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep theein all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dashthy foot against a stone."
She said this over and over to herself, and it comforted her. Then theface of Mrs. Goddard came before her mental vision, and the lovelyearnestness of her voice sounded in Carolina's ear. She remembered herlast words, which now came back to her with strange and timelysignificance:
"The way will not always be smooth beneath your feet. Error in theguise of fear, selfish or vainglorious thoughts, revenge, self-pity, ordesire to shine before others will sometimes cause you to stumble andfall. But at such times, remember to blame, not circumstances norothers, but your own faulty thought. Be severe with yourself. Thenturn your thought instantly to the Source of your supply. No one canhelp you, Carolina, but God, your Father, Divine Love, the All in All ofyour existence, your very Reason for being. Realize that God is allthere is. Beyond Him there is nothing and nothingness. Breathe Hisspirit. Drink in His divine power. Make yourself one with Him, and youwill instantly find that the mists which covered the surface of yourspiritual reflection of His image will disappear, and you will begin toreflect His government clearly. At that same moment, you will be healedof your infirmity."
As she repeated these last few words aloud, a feeling of completesecurity took possession of her, and she rose, first to her knees, thento her feet, and walked confidently to her chair by the window.
In great thankfulness she took her Bible and read the fifth chapter ofLuke, and, when she came to the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth verses,she read them three times, with a heart full of gratitude.
Still she was not satisfied. She was groping after a sign, and she readon until she came to the words, "And when they bring you unto thesynagogues, and unto the magistrates and powers, take ye no thought howor what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say. For the Holy Ghostshall teach you in that hour what ye ought to say."
"The Holy Ghost!" thought Carolina. "I wonder what that really is.That is one of the things I never could understand in the old thought."
She turned to the Glossary in "Science and Health," and there the firstdefinition of Holy Ghost was "Divine Science."
"I am answered," she said, with a sigh of complete satisfaction. "Forthe first time in my life I begin to understand the fourteenth chapterof John."
She leaned her head against the window-pane to watch the postman comedown the street. Then she heard his whistle, and presently the maidbrought her a letter. She asked the maid to turn on the electric light,and, when she had done so and left the room, Carolina read the followingletter:
"LONDON, May 6, 19--
"MY DEAR MISS CAROLINA:--You have rejected my suit so often, when I hadno inducement to offer you except a heart which beats for you alone,which seems to be no temptation to you, that I shall not pay you thepoor compliment of offering myself to you again when, as you must haveheard, I have become the owner of Guildford.
"But, having heard of your great misfortune and of your change ofreligion, and knowing that you love the old home so ardently that itsatmosphere might effect a cure when all else failed, I beg you to acceptGuildford as it stands, as a gift from your father's old friend,
"WAYNE YANCEY."
Carolina's first impulse, having read the letter twice, was one of thecold fury she used to feel when a child, and she turned pale with a ragewhich was unspeakable in its violence.
Too well she saw through the malice of the whole affair. Colonel Yanceyknew that, after her first impact of anger had passed, her next thoughtwould be to wish she could buy the estate back, and these terms heintended to make prohibitive. Carolina wondered if he expected to wearout her patience, and so force her to marry him, or what? She could nothope to follow with accuracy the tortuous windings of a mind asintricate as Colonel Yancey's, and she despaired of ever realizing thatthe labyrinth could untwist into the straight and narrow way to whichshe was accustomed. But, so far from crushing her, this letter simplyroused in her the valiant spirit of the Lees. So far from feelingdownhearted, she began to sing.
But it was not a worldly courage which was sustaining her. It was thespirit which had grown out of her afternoon of work.
She deliberately took her cane with her as she went down to dinner,although she felt that she could walk without it. She knew that Katewanted the surprise to be complete.
With this end in view, she sat at the table until the footman announcedDoctor Colfax, and then she allowed all the others to precede her.
"N-now wait until we have all had time to shake hands, and a-ask him howhe enjoyed himself, and give him a chance to be disappointed org-gloating, just as he feels, because y-you aren't down. Then y-youskate in and w-watch him drop! We'll have him a Christian Sciencepractitioner b-before we are done with him!"
Carolina obeyed.
They were all there,--Mr. and Mrs. Howard, Kate, Cousin Lois, DoctorColfax, and Noel St. Quentin, and all were under the impression thatCarolina would never be able to walk without some slight support. Sothat, when she walked slowly through the door, taking her steps withgreat care, that sh
e might more gloriously reflect the Light, a hushfell upon them all. They did not greet her. They rose to their feet andstood watching her in perfect silence, and it was not until Kate sobbedin her excitement that the spell was broken.
Noel St. Quentin bit his lips, and Doctor Colfax's face went from red towhite in an emotion which no one could fathom. Was he chagrined to seethe woman he loved cured? Did he grudge her healing at other hands thanhis?
They all began to speak at once. Only Mr. Howard, Kate's father, satback and watched and listened.
Roscoe Howard was a remarkable man in many ways. He possessed acritical mind, large wealth, great depth of character, and a surenessand quickness of perception, which had all contributed to his success inlife. He was a student, above all, of human nature, and he had insistedupon Kate's willing hospitality to her friend, partly from affection tothe daughter of his old friend, Winchester Lee, and partly to see whateffect such an avalanche of misfortunes would have upon the proud spiritand high-strung nature of Carolina. When he heard of her embrace ofChristian Science, he became still more interested. He had once gone into sit with her when her arm was bandaged from wounds from her own teethin one of her fits of despairing rage.
Therefore, when he learned from his daughter that this was to be thegirl's first appearance before her old friends, he could imagine theordeal it would prove to her, and in his own mind he said: "Carolinawill show us to-night whether she is The Lady or The Tiger!"
At first they all tried to be polite and remember that they werecivilized, but soon that curious unable-to-let-it-alone spirit whichChristian Science invariably stirs in mortal mind began to manifestitself in hints and covert remarks and side glances and meaningsilences, until Carolina calmly looked them in the eyes and said, in hergentlest manner: "I am perfectly willing to talk about it."
Kate clutched her mother's arm.
"I-isn't Carolina a d-dandy?" she whispered. "Takes every hurdle withouteven stopping to measure it with her eye!"
"Well, doctor, since Carolina has given us permission to discuss it,what have you to say about it?" asked Mrs. Howard.
"I can simply say this," said Doctor Colfax. "I don't understand it.But, then," he added frankly, "I don't understand the Bible, either."
"Then that is why you don't understand my cure, doctor," said Carolina,quietly, "for it is founded on the promises which Christ explicitly madeto His disciples."
"To His disciples,--yes," replied Doctor Colfax, quickly, "but not tous. We are not His disciples."
"If you are a thorough Bible student," said Carolina, "please tell methe exact words of His promise."
"I am not. You have me there, Miss Lee."
"Well," persisted Carolina, "where did He limit the power He gave, andwhich you admit existed at one time, to His disciples? Did He ever say,'I will give it to you and to no other?' or 'I will give it to youduring my lifetime, but after my ascension it will return unto me,because you will no longer have need of it?'"
"No, I can't remember any such passages," admitted Doctor Colfax.
"W-well, He never s-said anything of the kind," put in Kate. "I don'tknow much, but I know that!"
"What did He say, Carolina?" asked St. Quentin. "Do you remember theexact words?"
"Yes, I do. In one place He said: 'He that believeth on me, the worksthat I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he dobecause I go unto my father.' And at another time He said: 'Heal thesick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely yehave received. Freely give.' Now when did the time limit to thosecommands end?"
"Oh, nonsense, Carolina!" said Mrs. Howard, with the amused tolerationof the already saved. "How can you bring up such absurd speculations?All those questions have been settled for us by the heads of theChurches years and years before we were born."
"They were settled, dear Mrs. Howard, for all who choose to accept suchdecisions, but how about those of us who have questioned all our livesand never found an answer which satisfied? I can remember, as a littlegirl in Paris, I used to come home from the convent and ply my fatherwith this very question: 'Why can't priests and preachers heal in thesedays the way Jesus commanded?'"
"Well, does Mrs. Eddy have the nerve to assert that she rediscovered theway to perform Christ's miracles?" asked Doctor Colfax.
"Mrs. Eddy asserts that in 1866 she discovered the Christ Science, orthe power of healing disease as Jesus healed it, by a mental processwhich is so simple that to all Christian Scientists Christ's so-calledmiracles are not miracles at all, but as simple and natural as any othermental phenomenon which has become common by reason of its frequency."
"That sounds like sacrilege," said St. Quentin.
"It sounds like tommy-rot!" said Kate.
"And yet," put in Mr. Howard, "we must all admit that Carolina has beenmiraculously healed. Do you not admit that, doctor?"
Doctor Colfax's face became suffused. He bit his lip, then said, withquiet distinctness:
"If I had cut off a man's leg with my own hands, and Mrs. Eddy, under myvery eyes, caused a new leg to grow in the place of the old one, I wouldnot believe in her or in anything she taught!"
Expressions of varying emotions swept over the faces of his listeners atthis sincere statement of unbelief,--some were triumphant, someincredulous, some surprised, and one contemptuous.
"But, doctor, when you see Christian Science enrolling the names of themost brilliant minds; when you see the loveliest women forsaking a lifeof ease and pleasure and becoming practitioners,--Christian Sciencedoctors just as selfless and single-minded as you--"
"If you are referring to that depraved woman who claims to have curedyou, Miss Lee, that morphine fiend, that drunkard, that reformedcharacter, I beg that you will not name her as a physician in any senseof the word. The medical profession is too noble to be degraded in sucha manner!"
"Oh, doctor," cried Carolina, reproachfully, "if you could only hear thebeautiful way in which she speaks of you!"
"Oh, doctor, aren't you a little severe?" asked Mrs. Winchester.
Noel St. Quentin smothered an amused laugh.
"Pooh!" cried Kate. "Why pay any attention to him? He's o-only a man,and men are always wrong! H-he's talking through his h-hat, that'sw-what he's doing. He's jealous."
She was sitting near St. Quentin, and, turning to him under cover of theconversation, she murmured:
"What are you laughing at behind your hand?"
"I was simply remarking a phenomenon that I have often remarked before,and that is, that Christian Science seems to possess a peculiar power--"
"Oh, oh! are you going over to the enemy?" asked Kate.
"You didn't let me finish. I was going to say that it possesses apeculiar power of making well-bred people forget what is due a civilizedcommunity. I have never, I think, heard so much rudeness, such rankinelegance, such brutal prejudice expressed on any subject which politesociety discusses. It takes Christian Science every time to make peopleabsolutely insulting to their best friends."
"Funny, isn't it? I don't mind it so much since Carolina got into it;she is so honest and so brave about answering it, b-but I used to hateit so it c-cankered the roof of my mouth j-just to speak the name ofit."
"Another curious thing I have noticed," said St. Quentin, speaking forKate's ear only, "is that those who hate it most violently at firstgenerally end by adopting it, so look out!"
"You don't mean it!" cried Kate, in such a horror-stricken voice thatevery one heard her. "D-don't ask me what we are t-talking about,because it is not f-fit for you to hear," she cried.
"Carolina," said Mr. Howard, tactfully, "please tell us what you havefound in Christian Science. I have always had a great respect for yourintelligence, and I am not prepared to find it befogged in thisinstance, or that you have been deceived."
He never forgot the luminous gratitude of her look.
"Thank you, dear Mr. Howard. Let me see if I can tell you what it isand what it has done for me.
It is the theory of mind over matter, putin practice and lived up to. It teaches us to understand before we arecalled upon to believe. It is the study of Christian metaphysics, ormetaphysics spiritualized. It takes all the impossible out of theScriptures, and makes them understandable, not to a fool, but to thewise man,--the man capable of understanding a great matter. Having donethis for the brain, it teaches so absolutely a God of Love, a God who isboth father and mother in the love and yearning tenderness of Histhought toward us, that it eliminates all fear from our lives. Allfear! Can you take that in at once? It makes the ninety-first psalm apersonal talk between a father and his dearly loved child. To me itsounds just as if daddy were talking to me from the Beyond. That wouldbe just his attitude toward me if he possessed God's power. And if youbelieve it,--if you can once let yourself believe it, it makes thisearth instantly into heaven."
"Yes, yes, I can see that it would," said Mr. Howard. "But do notScientists believe that it also prospers you in a worldly sense?"
"Are you giving Kate everything that heart could wish now, and are yougoing to leave her all your money when you die?" asked Carolina.
"That knocked his eye out," murmured Kate, in an aside to St. Quentin,but he observed that she looked singularly pleased when Carolina scoreda point.
Mr. Howard waved his hand in a slightly deprecatory way.
"Ah, that is just it!" cried Carolina. "You are thinking, 'Oh, but,Carolina, I am Kate's own father, and God is just God!' Heavenly Fatherdoesn't mean a thing to most Christians. Christian Scientists can'tshirk their beliefs. If they do, they are just as they werebefore,--pretending or rather trying to believe what they feel that theyought to believe, but getting no satisfaction and no comfort from it. AScientist who does not put his belief into practice can neither heal hisown body nor others. So he is literally forced to be honest."
"Well," said St. Quentin, "I can easily see where the supreme andslightly irritating happiness of Christian Scientists comes in. I couldbe supremely happy myself if I could believe in it."
"So could I," declared Kate. "A-and I suppose it is sheer envy on mypart, when I see their Cheshire-cat grins, to want to slap their facesfor being happier than I am!"
"But what makes them so happy?" asked Mrs. Winchester, plaintively."Why should they be any happier than we are? We both have the sameBible, and I flatter myself that I am just as capable of understandingit as any self-styled priestess of a new religion."
"But _do_ you understand it, Cousin Lois?" asked Carolina, gently.
"I understand all that is good for me, dear child. I understand all thatour Lord wants me to, or He would have made me Mrs. Eddy and made Mrs.Eddy, Mrs. Winchester. We are fulfilling God's will."
"I d-don't believe that, either," whispered Kate to St. Quentin. "I--Ihave to admit that Carolina's God is a more consistent Being than Mrs.Winchester's."
"But you have not answered my question, Carolina," said Cousin Lois.
"What makes us so happy? Well, I wonder if I can tell you. In thefirst place, it is the relief of dropping all anxiety. We don't have toworry about a single solitary thing. We put all responsibility off onGod. You know it says 'Cast thy burdens on the Lord!'"
"But how can you?" cried Kate. "I--I'm sure I'd like to, but I c-can'tget my own consent."
"That's exactly it. Well, we do it. Then, having put all fear out ofour lives, what is there left to make one unhappy? If you are no longerafraid of losing your health or your money or of dying or of beingmaimed or injured in accidents by land or sea, or of old age or anymisfortune coming to any of your dear ones, so that it leaves youperfectly free to come and go as you please, to eat at all hours thingswhich used to produce indigestion, to eat lobster and ice-creamtogether, drink strong coffee late at night and drop off to sleep like ababy, and, if it eliminates all dread of the unseen and the unknowable,what more is there left to fret about, I'd like to know?"
"How about waking up in the middle of the night to worry about yourdebts?" asked St. Quentin.
"The answer to that is that, at first you begin by remembering that asGod is the Source of all supply, if you are consistent, the way will beopened to pay your debts. And, after you once master that comfortingfact, it is easy to see that the next thing will be that you won't wakeup in the night to worry or even to think."
"Carolina!" exclaimed Mrs. Winchester, "do you mean to tell me that you,who used to lie awake hours and hours every night of your life, cansleep through till morning?"
"I do, Cousin Lois. Often actually without turning over. And with nobad dreams. Can you believe me?"
Doctor Colfax rose abruptly, as if he could bear no more, and when, witha little more leave-taking, St. Quentin had offered to drive Mrs.Winchester back to Sherman's in his new motor-car, and the Howards andCarolina were left alone, Mr. Howard turned to Carolina and said:
"Carol, I have heard a great deal, here and there, about your interestin Guildford and your wish to restore the place. Would you mind tellingme your plans?"
"Not in the least, Mr. Howard. The place has been sold under itsmortgage, as you doubtless know, but it is of no more value to itspresent owner than any of the land surrounding it, which is equallyarable. Its only value to us was because it was our ancestral estate.It has a water-front, and, having been left intact for over two hundredyears, its timber is enormously valuable. If I owned it, and had alittle working capital, I could pay off the mortgage and restore thehouse with the timber alone."
"Why, how is that, Carolina? Is it so extensive as all that?"
"It is only about two thousand acres,--a mere handful of land to aNorthern millionaire, who buys land along the Hudson and in theCatskills and Adirondacks of ten times that amount, but that is a verydecent size for a Southern plantation. But the value is in the kind oftimber. It is long-leaf yellow pine, which produces turpentine androsin first, by the orchard process, then what is left is suitable forthe lumber men, and the fallen trees and stumps for the new process ofmaking turpentine. My plan was to sell the turpentine rights to theorchard people for, say, three years, then sell the timber, andafterward sell the stumpage and refuse to the patent people, or perhapserect a plant myself. There is a tremendous profit in turpentine and aconstant and ready market."
Mr. Howard sat in a large armchair, with his finger-tips together andhis head bent forward, looking at the girl from under his heavyeyebrows. He was amazed at her statement of Guildford's possibilities.Hitherto he had regarded her unknown plan as probably only a woman'ssentimental idea, and doubtless wild and impracticable.
"You say that the timber has been untouched for two hundred years?"
"Practically untouched. We had it examined four years ago, and I haveheard of nothing since."
"Is any of this land suitable for cotton?"
"Yes, for both cotton and rice, and I should raise both. There is noreason to my mind why a Southerner should not be as thrifty with everyacre of ground as the Northerner is, nor why every inch should not bemade to yield in America as it does in France."
"Right! right! And the Southerners will accept such incendiarysentiments from you, because you are one of them, but, when I venturedsomething on the same order, but much more mild, I was called 'a damnedYankee,' who wanted to 'make truck-farmers out of gentlemen.'"
"Oh, oh!" laughed Carolina, merrily. "How like them that sounds! Youknow, dear Mr. Howard, they think we have no gentlemen in the North."
"T-they aren't far from it," cried Kate. "There are f-few gentlemenanywhere in the world, according to m-my definition of one."
"You say Guildford is sold?" said Mr. Howard.
"Yes, Sherman was obliged to mortgage it, but he did so without knowinghow dearly I loved it. Then some one bought the mortgage and foreclosedit."
"Why, who could have done such a thing? There must have been a motive.Has coal been discovered on any of the surrounding property?"
"Not that I know of," said Carolina, in a guarded tone.
"
Then there must have been some motive in the mind of the purchaser,"said Mr. Howard, decisively.
Carolina was silent.
"Can you throw any light on the subject, Carol?" he persisted, but hismanner was so kindly that Carolina could not take offence.
Her reticence arose from two causes. One, her natural wish not to bruither private affairs abroad, and the other that Mrs. Goddard had enjoinedstrict silence on her. "Nothing can be lost in Truth," Mrs. Goddard hadsaid, "nor are the channels of God's affluence ever clogged, but mortalmind makes laws which we are obliged to overcome. Therefore, the fewerpeople who know about it, the easier our work will be."
However, something in Mr. Howard's manner led Carolina to suspect thathe was not seeking to be informed out of idle curiosity, and her heartgave a bound at the thought that perhaps Divine Love might be using himas a channel.
Noticing her momentary hesitation, he said:
"You need not fear to confide in me, Carol. Perhaps I can be of somehelp to you."
Again she hesitated. She knew that the Howard family knew of ColonelYancey's attentions to her. Still she felt that she must venture.
"The present owner of Guildford is Colonel Yancey," she said, in a lowvoice.
"Colonel Yancey!"
"Colonel Yancey!"
"Colonel Yancey!"
And so occupied was each listener with his own thoughts and mentalprocesses that each regarded that exclamation as an original remark.
Carolina looked from one to the other of them anxiously, in the shortsilence which followed.
"I understand," said Mr. Howard, slowly. "I think--I--understand!"
"And this afternoon," Carolina went on, "I received a most extraordinaryletter from him, dated at London, making me a present of Guildford."
"Making you a p-present of it!" cried Kate. "What g-gigantic impudence!"
"He did it to irritate her into taking some notice of him!" declaredMrs. Howard.
"H-he did it to show her how h-helpless she is!" cried Kate. "He knowsshe has n-no money. But I think I see him hanging around until he wearsCarolina out. That is his g-game! A n-nice step-m-mother you w-wouldmake to those two children of his,--and the l-little one a cripple!"
"Children!" cried Carolina, turning white. "I never knew that therewere any! He never mentioned them."
"Oh, h-he didn't want to d-discourage you t-too much," cried Kate.
"And one of them--the little one--a cripple, did you say?"
The eager pity in Carolina's voice frightened Kate. She looked atCarolina in wonder. The girl was leaning forward in her chair, her lipsparted, her eyes shining, her cheeks blazing. Kate felt physically sickas the thought flashed through her mind that perhaps this altruisticpity might rush her friend into the marriage with Colonel Yancey, whicheven Guildford had been unable to do.
"Where is the child?" asked Carolina.
"She is at the Exmoor Hospital. Her aunt, Sue Yancey, brought herethere last week for an examination. They are trying to gain ColonelYancey's consent to an operation."
"How do you know all this?" asked Kate's mother.
"I went there to take some flowers to-day, and I saw this child,--she isa little beauty,--and I asked Doctor Shourds who she was and he told me.The trouble is with her ankles. Her feet are perfectly formed, but theyturn in and she can't bear her weight upon them, nor walk a step."
"She _can_ walk!" said Carolina, in a low, earnest voice. "God, in HisDivine Love, never made a crippled baby!"
Something smarted in Mr. Howard's eyes. He, was no believer inChristian Science, but he loved little children, and Carolina's tone ofdeep and quiet conviction wrenched his heart.
"Carol, Carol!" wailed Kate, wringing her nose and mopping her eyes,with utter disregard of their redness, "you do make me howl so!"
"Carolina," said Mr. Howard, suddenly, "you know that I do notpersonally subscribe to the teachings of your new religion, but I am anobserver of human nature, and I know the hall-marks of realChristianity. I have seen you to-night keep your temper under tryingcircumstances, defend your faith with spirit, and exemplify the commandto love your enemies, and I want to tell you that if there is anything Ican do toward financing a plan to buy Guildford from Colonel Yancey, andinstalling you there to pursue your life-work, you can count on me."
Carolina made an attempt to speak, but her eyes swam in tears, and sheburied her face in her arm.
"Oh, daddy! daddy! D-dear old daddy!" cried Kate, dancing up and downin her excitement. "I knew y-you were up to something! Y-you may notcare for C-Christian Science, b-but, when you s-see a good thing, youknow enough to p-push it along!"