Lorenzo dropped her hand and laughed out loud. And then he caught her in his arms and kissed her.
She screamed. To her it was the greatest shock of her life, for no man had ever kissed her before. "Oh--oh, mercy!"
Matters were not helped much by Susan"s looking over the fence just then and crying out abruptly: "Well, I declare!"
"Mrs. Ralston," said Lorenzo, not even blushing, "you"re the very person we need this minute. I want to marry Jane, and she won"t hear to it because of her father"s debts. The debts are all right and everything"s all right, only she won"t believe it. I wish you"d climb the fence and help me persuade her, for although I _know_ she"ll end by marrying me, I"ve just set my heart on converting her to her own religion first."
Susan swung easily over the fence. "You"re just right, Mr. Rath, you ought to marry her. She"s the nicest person to have around the house that I ever saw; she"s far too good to be a nurse. How much did your father owe, you Sunshine Jane, you? Maybe I can pay it. I will if I can."
"There," said Lorenzo; "see how easy it is to evolve money if you"d only trust a little?"
Jane looked at him and then at Susan. "I couldn"t take your money, Auntie," said she, quite gently, but quite firmly. "And then, too," she added, with her roguish smile, "you"ve left it to Aunt Matilda."
"Yes, but dear," Susan"s face became suddenly radiant, "you know I"ve been working your religion on her; maybe she isn"t coming back at all; maybe something will happen; maybe she"s going to be drowned or something like that in some perfectly right way."
"No," said Lorenzo soberly. "It isn"t necessary to plan as to G.o.d"s business at all. He knows. I don"t think that Jane ought to take anybody"s money; she ought to pay the debts with her own money, but I can"t see why she can"t trust and know it"s coming."
"Because there"s no place for it to come from," said Jane firmly.
"Unless Matilda--" Susan interposed.
"I believe I"m better at her religion than she is herself," said Lorenzo. "I declare, I believe that there"s nothing that I can"t get now. I wanted a house, and I worked just as the book said! I saw myself living cosily alone, and in less than a week I was living cosily alone.
Now I want Jane with me in the house, and I mean to have her, and I shall have her, and there"s no doubt about that; but I do wish--with all my heart--that she could rise to a higher plane."
"If that"s all, I know how to manage that easily enough," said Susan.
"We could get old Mr. Cattermole in for a week and raise Jane"s plane with him, just like she raised mine with Mrs. Croft."
"Oh, she"ll rise," said her lover quietly. "We must give her time and help her, that"s all."
Jane stood doubting between them. Her aunt regarded her wistfully. "Dear me," she said, "I wonder if I could screw myself up to believing she"ll come in for a fortune. I want to help, but I"m a little like her--I can"t for the life of me see where it"s to come from."
"But that isn"t the question at all," said Lorenzo, "the question isn"t how--the question is just the faith. Why, it"s the corner-stone of the whole thing! It"s the moving into G.o.d"s world where nothing but good can be, and you know you"re there because you see only good coming in all directions! Just good--nothing but good! I don"t see why Jane holds back so. I know that she can get that money and get every other thing she wants in life, including me, and I"m one of the nicest fellows alive--"
"That"s so--" interposed Susan.
"If she"ll only put out her hand with confidence. I"ve studied that book till I"m full of it, and I know that I"m going to have her for my wife, and I know it absolutely, and I want her to know it, too."
Susan began to get back over the fence. "I"m going in about breakfast,"
she said; "the trouble with us is we all need hot coffee to brace up our souls."
"Keep on declaring the truth," Lorenzo reminded her, as she walked off upon the other side.
"I will. I"ll say "Jane is going to get some money" and "Matilda doesn"t want to come home to live," alternately."
When she was out of hearing the two young people remained silent for a few seconds. Then the man spoke.
"Dear," his voice was very gentle, "I want to tell you something. I"ve had a very great experience in the last twenty-four hours. It isn"t loving you--it"s that I"ve been allowed to see a little bit of life from G.o.d"s standpoint. Don"t you want to know the real truth about all this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I"m going to tell you, because you"ll see the lesson and learn it with me. We don"t doubt that G.o.d knows all that has been or is to be, do we?--or that in our minutes of fiercest pain or trouble He looks calmly to the end beyond?"
She shook her head. "No, of course not."
"Well, dearest girl, I was allowed last night to put myself in the Deity"s place and see one corner of the universe as He must see the whole."
Her eyes grew big. "What do you mean?"
"I mean this. I want you, and I understand perfectly about the money. I sat down last night and I labored with myself until I made myself _know_ that it was yours. I can"t tell you just how it came to me, but I knew it. It is yours and yours absolutely, and now I want you to realize it and believe in it without question, before I give it to you. Will you do that? I"m asking of you the faith that Jesus preached. Can you believe?"
Jane looked at him wonderingly. "You mean--"
"I mean just what I say."
"I can"t receive money from you."
"It isn"t my money."
"I don"t understand. I only know that there is no way that I can get the money."
Lorenzo looked at her a minute, and then said slowly and very gently: "I"ve found Mrs. Croft"s will. She left all that she had to whoever took care of her the night she died. It appears that she had a good deal more than any one supposed. It"s all yours, dear. Now you see why you should have trusted."
CHAPTER XVIII
IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY
WHEN Susan, looking out of the window, saw the two whom she had left behind coming across the gra.s.s, she knew instantly.
"They"ve settled it somehow," she exclaimed in supremest joy, and whirled to whisk the bacon off the stove.
"Auntie," said Jane, from outside the window, the minute after, "I am just dumb. I don"t believe I"ll ever be able to lift up my head in life again."
"Auntie," said Lorenzo, over her shoulder, "she"s inherited her fortune."
Susan gave a scream. "Oh, good mercy!"
"Yes, dear," said her niece, now in the doorway, "only I can"t believe it. I think that it"s a dream."
"You see she still isn"t able to rise to the proper heights of trust,"
laughed her lover, also now in the doorway, "but I have hopes of yet teaching her to believe what she believes."
"Come straight in and help me set all this on the table, so that I can listen with a free mind." Susan"s appeal was pathetic in the extreme.
"Where _did_ she get it, anyhow?"