An Unwilling Guest (Romance Classic). Grace Livingston Hill

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      CHAPTER VI.

      MAURICE GREY'S VOW

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      There were other vigils kept that night. The mother in her own room, though she put her light out quietly enough and knelt beside her bed as usual, prayed long and earnestly for her dear boy and added a petition for "the stranger beneath our roof." Then she lay down to wonder anxiously if she had done exactly right in bringing this strange unknown quantity into the house just now, when her dear boy was coming home, and to tell herself for the thousandth time that day that it had not been her doing. She had not even known that Maurice was coming this week. Finally she laid down her burden, asking her heavenly Father to make it all work out to his glory, and fell asleep.

      Allison in her room was trying to read her Bible. She was reading by course and her chapter that night brought her to the thirteenth of First Corinthians. She had read two or three verses unthinkingly, when her mind suddenly became aware of the meaning of the words. Impatiently she closed her Bible, then opened it again. She would not read in her regular order to-night. She needed special help. Her soul was weary and hungry. She needed something like "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden," or "Let not your heart be troubled." Not that sharp upbraiding, and being obliged to examine her heart again.

      She had done that all day. Besides, she knew that chapter by heart, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity." She knew all the latest expositions, had read and even learned it, substituting the word "love" for "charity." The whole thing searched her too keenly to-night, hence she turned away.

      But turn as she would to find comfort, that persistent Bible would open again and again back to the chapter in Corinthians. At last, unwillingly, she read it through, piercing her soul with every verse, and lay down to weary contemplation of her mistakes and failures, having tried to throw off her burdens in prayer, but picking them up and shouldering them once more. It was very hard for poor Allison to give up. When her will decided a thing she simply could not bear to hear things go the other way. She could not see how it was right. In theory she believed that God knew what would be best for all his children. In practice she had a strong conviction that she knew pretty well what the Lord had intended in the first place and there was danger of its getting switched off the track if she did not watch the switch and worry about it.

      Maurice Grey, in his old room, among the relics of his boyhood, his college days, and his early manhood, searched for a minute or two in an old desk drawer and brought therefrom a little black book labeled, "My Foreign Diary."

      He hastily turned the leaves and read:

      "At last I am afloat. New York has faded from our view. The last tie to terra firma in the shape of a dirty little boat has left us and we are bound for another shore. How I have dreamed of this day! Yet now that it has come I scarcely realize it. I have had so much to do the last forty eight hours. I believe I felt more that my foreign trip was actually begun when I bade mother and father and Allison good-bye last week than I do now. It was hard to have to leave them behind. In my dreams of this they have always been a happy accompaniment to my anticipated pleasures.

      "There has been nothing notable in the three days I have spent in New York, with the exception of my experience last evening. I was standing at the corner of West Sixty-Fourth Street looking up Fifth Avenue and trying to decide whether it was too late to make a brief call on any of the fellows in that part of town, or whether I would go at once to the hotel and get a good night's rest. The clocks had just struck eleven and for New York there seemed to be a sudden quiet about that quarter. I could hear footsteps, a woman's and a man's. The woman's steps suddenly quickened into a run as they turned the corner below and she came in sight. I could see that the man was trying to catch her, and he did succeed in taking hold of her arm as she came nearer. Then he tried to kiss her, calling her name in loud tones, 'Evelyn.' It made me shudder to hear that lovely name spoken in the street so, and by a drunkard in a drunken voice! That has always seemed to me a name that speaks of a guarded, sheltered life. I soon saw that the man was beside himself with liquor, and as they passed under the street light I suddenly recognized the girl to be Dick Rutherford's stately sister. I never met her, but have seen her many times with Dick and other college men. She is a great society girl and very beautiful. I knew her at once. Her face was white with fear. She seemed as glad to turn to me as a little child in trouble might be. I think she was too frightened to talk much. I took her to her father's door, telling her I knew her brother. Perhaps it is just as well for my future peace of mind that she did not ask my name. She will never be bothered with having to thank me for the small service I did her, and I shall not be chagrined because I am not eligible to her 'set.' It might be some temptation to me to try to become eligible if I had not decided to live another kind of life. I have consecrated everything to Jesus Christ—myself, my talents, if I have any, my all. Miss Rutherford has other aims in life probably. She would not think twice of a young medical student. I wonder if she is a Christian. I wonder what our meeting last night was for!"

      He turned the pages rapidly till his eye fell on the right date and then he settled to reading once more.

      "I have had an adventure. Here in this СКАЧАТЬ