"If you won"t, I will say no more about it," replied Katy, as she returned the watch to her pocket. "You have got a very kind heart, and I shall never forget you as long as I live."
Katy, after glancing at the portrait of the roguish lady that hung in the room, took leave of Michael, and hastened home. On her way, she could not banish the generous servant from her mind. She could not understand why he should be so much interested in her as to offer the use of all he had; and she was obliged to attribute it all to the impulses of a kind heart. If she had been a little older, she might have concluded that the old maxim, slightly altered would explain the reason: "Like mistress, like man," that the atmosphere of kindness and charity that pervaded the house had inspired even the servants.
"Where have you been, Katy?" asked Mrs. Redburn, as she entered the sick chamber, and Mrs. Sneed hastened home.
"I have been to Mrs. Gordon."
"What for?"
Katy did not like to tell. She knew it would make her mother feel very unhappy to know that she had borrowed money of Mrs. Gordon"s servant.
"Oh, I went up to see her," replied Katy.
"No matter, if you don"t like to tell me," faintly replied Mrs. Redburn.
"I will tell you, mother," answered Katy, stung by the gentle rebuke contained in her mother"s words.
"I suppose our money is all gone," sighed the sick woman.
"No, mother; see here! I have three dollars," and Katy pulled out her porte-monnaie, anxious to save her even a moment of uneasiness.
But in taking out the money she exhibited the watch also, which at once excited Mrs. Redburn"s curiosity.
"What have you been doing with that, Katy?" she asked. "Ah, I fear I was right. We have no money! Our business is gone! Alas, we have nothing to hope for!"
"O, no, mother, it is not half so bad as that!" exclaimed Katy. "I went up to Mrs. Gordon for the purpose of borrowing twenty dollars of her; I didn"t want it to look like charity, so I was going to ask her to keep the watch till it was paid. That"s all, mother."
"And she refused?"
"No; she was not at home."
"But your money is not all gone?"
Katy wanted to say it was not, but her conscience would not let her practise deception. She had the three dollars which she had just borrowed of Michael, and that was not all gone. But this was not the question her mother asked, and it would be a lie to say the money was not all gone, when she fully understood the meaning of the question.
Perhaps it was for her mother"s good to deceive her; but she had been taught to feel that she had no right to do evil that good might follow.
"It was all gone, but I borrowed three dollars," she replied, after a little hesitation.
"Of whom?"
"Of Michael."
"Who"s he?"
"Mrs. Gordon"s man.
"O Katy! How could you do so?" sighed Mrs. Redburn.
"I couldn"t help it, mother. He would make me take it;" and she gave all the particulars of her interview with Michael and reviewed the considerations which had induced her to accept the loan.
"Perhaps you are right, Katy. My pride would not have let me borrow of a servant; but it is wicked for me to cherish such a pride. I try very hard to banish it."
"Don"t talk any more now, mother. We are too poor to be too proud to accept a favor of one who is in a humble station." replied Katy.
"I don"t know what will become of us," said Mrs. Redburn, as she turned her head away to hide the tears that flooded her eyes.
Katy took up the Bible that lay by the bedside, and turning to the twenty-third psalm, she read, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters."
"Go on, Katy; those words are real comfort," said Mrs. Redburn, drying her tears. "I know it is wicked for me to repine."
Katy read the whole psalm, and followed it with others, which produced a healing influence upon her mother"s mind, and she seemed to forget that the purse was empty, and that they had placed themselves under obligations to a servant.
The sufferer rested much better than usual that night, and Katy was permitted to sleep the greater part of the time--a boon which her exhausted frame very much needed. About ten o"clock in the forenoon, Michael paid her a visit, to inform her that Mrs. Gordon had just arrived: and that, when he mentioned her case, she had sent him down to request her immediate attendance and that his mistress would have come herself, only she was so much fatigued by her journey.
Katy could not leave then, for she had no one to stay with her mother; but Mrs. Sneed could come in an hour. Michael hastened home with the intelligence that Mrs. Redburn was better, and Katy soon followed him.
CHAPTER XX.
MRS. GORDON FEELS FAINT, AND KATY ENTERS A NEW SPHERE.
On her arrival at Temple Street, Katy was promptly admitted by Michael, and shown in the sitting-room, where Mrs. Gordon and Grace were waiting for her.
"I was very sorry to hear that your mother is sick, Katy," said the former; "and I should have paid you a visit, instead of sending for you, if I had not been so much exhausted by my journey from Baltimore."
"You are very kind, ma"am."
"Did Dr. Flynch call upon you at the first of the month?"
"Yes, ma"am; and we paid the rent as usual," replied Katy.
"I am sorry you did so, Katy; you should have told him you were not in a condition to pay the rent."
"I couldn"t tell him so, he is so cold and cruel."
"I think you misjudge him, for he has a really kind heart, and would not have distressed you for all the world. Besides, I told him he need not collect your rent any time when you did not feel ready to pay it. I hope he gave you no trouble?"
"No, ma"am; I didn"t give him a chance, for I paid him as soon as he demanded it; though it took nearly all the money we had. I hope you will excuse me, ma"am, but I haven"t liked him since the trouble we had a year ago, when he accused my dear mother of telling a lie."
"Perhaps he was hasty."
"I forgive him, ma"am; but I can"t help thinking he is a very wicked man," answered Katy, with considerable emphasis.
"I hope not so bad as that; for I am sure, if you had told him it was not convenient for you to pay the rent, he would not have insisted. But you want some a.s.sistance Katy?"
"Yes, ma"am; that is, I want to borrow some money," replied Katy, blushing deeply.