Father John sat down at once by the bedside, and Mrs. Anderson went softly out of the room.
"Waiting for something, little man?" said the street preacher.
"How can you tell?" asked Ronald.
"I see it in your eyes," said the preacher.
"It"s father," said Ronald.
"Which father?" asked the preacher.
"My own," said Ronald--"my soldier father--the V. C. man, you know."
"Yes," said Father John.
"I want him," said Ronald.
"Of course you do."
"Is he likely to come soon?" asked Ronald.
"If I could tell you that, Ronald," said the street preacher, "I should be a wiser man than my Father in heaven means me to be. There is only one Person who can tell you when your earthly father will come."
"You mean Lord Christ," said Ronald.
"I mean Christ and our Father in heaven."
Ronald shut his eyes for a minute. Then he opened them.
"I want my father," he said. "I"m sort o" starving for him."
"Well," said Father John, "you have a father, you know--you have two fathers. If you can"t get your earthly father down here, you"re certain safe to get him up there. A boy with two fathers needn"t feel starved about the heart, need he, now?"
"I suppose not," said Ronald.
"He need not, of course," said Father John. "I"ll say a bit of a prayer for you to the Heavenly Father, and I know that sore feeling will go out of your heart. I know it, Ronald; for He has promised to answer the prayers of those who trust in Him. But now I want to talk to you about something else. I guess, somehow, that the next best person to your father to come to see you now is your little friend Connie."
"Yes, yes!" said Ronald. "I"ve missed her dreadful. Mrs. Anderson is sweet, and Nurse Charlotte very kind, and I"m beginning not to be quite so nervous about fire and smoke and danger. It"s awful to be frightened.
I"ll have to tell my father when he comes back how bad I"ve been and how unlike him. But if I can"t get him just now--and I"m not going to be unpatient--I want Connie, "cos she understands."
"Of course she understands," said the preacher. "I will try and get her for you."
"But why can"t she come back?"
"She can"t."
"But why--why?"
"That is another thing I can"t tell you."
"And I am not to be unpatient," said Ronald.
"You"re to be patient--it"s a big lesson--it mostly takes a lifetime to get it well learned. But somehow, when it is learned, then there"s nothing else left to learn."
Ronald"s eyes were so bright and so dark that the preacher felt he had said enough for the present. He bent down over the boy.
"The G.o.d above bless thee, child," he said; "and if you have power and strength to say a little prayer for Connie, do. She will come back when the Heavenly Father wills it. Good-bye, Ronald."
CHAPTER XX.
CAUGHT AGAIN.
When Connie awoke the next morning, it was to see the ugly face of Agnes bending over her.
"Stylites is to "ome," she said briefly. "Yer"d best look nippy and come into the kitchen and "ave yer brekfus"."
"Oh!" said Connie.
"You"ll admire Stylites," continued Agnes; "he"s a wery fine man. Now come along--but don"t yer keep him waiting."
Connie had not undressed. Agnes poured a little water into a cracked basin for her to wash her face and hands, and showed her a comb, by no means specially inviting, with which she could comb out her pretty hair.
Then, again enjoining her to "look slippy," she left the room.
In the kitchen a big breakfast was going on. A quant.i.ty of bacon was frizzling in a pan over a great fire; and Freckles, the boy who had let Connie and Agnes in the night before, was attending to it. Two men with rough faces--one of them went by the name of Corkscrew, and the other was known as Nutmeg--were standing also within the region of the warm and generous fire. But the man on whom Connie fixed her pretty eyes, when she softly opened the door and in all fear made her appearance, was of a totally different order of being.
He was a tall man, quite young, not more than thirty years of age, and remarkably handsome. He had that curious combination of rather fair hair and very dark eyes and brows. His face was clean-shaven, and the features were refined and delicate without being in the least effeminate; for the cruel strength of the lower jaw and firmly shut lips showed at a glance that this man had a will of iron. His voice was exceedingly smooth and gentle, however, in intonation.
When he saw Connie he stepped up to her side and, giving her a gracious bow, said:
"Welcome to the kitchen, young lady."
"It"s Stylites--bob yer curtsy," whispered Agnes in Connie"s ear.
So Connie bobbed her curtsy. Was this the man she was to be so dreadfully afraid of? Her whole charming little face broke into a smile.
"I"m so glad as you"re Stylites!" she said.
The compliment, the absolutely unexpected words, the charm of the smile, had a visible effect upon the man. He looked again at Connie as though he would read her through and through; then, taking her hand, he led her to the breakfast-table.
"Freckles," he said, "put a clean plate and knife on the table. That plate isn"t fit for a young lady to eat off."
Freckles grinned from ear to ear, showing rows of yellow teeth. He rushed off to wash the plate in question, and returned with it hot and shining to lay again before Connie"s place. Simeon Stylites himself helped the little girl to the choicest pieces of bacon, to delicate slices of white bread, and to any other good things which were on the table. As he did this he did not speak once, but his eyes seemed to be everywhere. No one dared do a thing on the sly. The rough-looking men, Corkscrew and Nutmeg, were desired in a peremptory tone to take their mugs of tea to another table at the farther end of the great room. One of them ventured to grumble, and both cast angry glances at Connie.
Stylites, however, said, "Shut that!" and they were instantly mute as mice.