Matilda had dried all the cups, and she threw her napkin down and covered her face.
"Oh yes!" she said; "it is duty and pleasure too. I"ll do what I can."
"But what does it signify, your doing it?" said Maria. "It isn"t anything. And it will look so odd if you do and I don"t."
Matilda took up her napkin again, and went to work at the plates.
"Matilda, I wish you would wait. I am not ready to go now."
"But I am ready, Maria."
"If I was to tell Aunt Candy, I believe she would put a stop to it,"
said Maria, sulkily. "I know she does not think much of such young people doing such things."
"But Jesus said, Let them come."
Maria tossed her head. However she did not speak to Mrs. Candy.
So it was with no notion of Matilda"s intention that her aunt that Sunday took her seat in Mr. Richmond"s church. She had heard that a number of people, most of them young people, were to be baptized in the evening; she had been to her own church duly in the morning, and thought she might gratify her curiosity now in seeing how these things are managed in a different communion. She and Clarissa went alone, not supposing that the younger ones of the family were at that same moment getting ready to follow.
"How are you going to dress yourself, Matilda?" her sister inquired.
"To dress myself!" said Matilda, turning her eyes upon her sister in astonished fashion.
"Why, yes, child! you will go out there in sight of everybody, you know. Aren"t you going to put on a white frock? Clarissa says they always do in "her church.""
Matilda looked down at her own black dress and burst into tears; only by a vigorous effort she kept the tears from falling, after the first one or two, and hurriedly and silently began to get herself ready.
"But, Matilda! why don"t you speak?" said her sister. "Are you going just so? and why don"t you speak to me? There is no harm in a white frock."
"I don"t want a white frock," said Matilda. "Do _you_ mean to stay at home?"
"I suppose I am going," said Maria, beginning slowly her own preparations. "People would think odd if I didn"t go. Where are you going to sit?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why, you are very stupid. I mean, where are you going to sit?"
"Where we always do, I suppose."
"But then you would have so far to walk."
"To walk?" Matilda repeated, bewildered.
"Why, yes, child! When you are called to go up with the rest, you know; you would have so far to go."
"Oh!" said Matilda. "What of it?"
"Don"t you care?"
"Why, no. It don"t make any difference."
"Well, I"d have a white frock if I were you," said Maria. "Being in black is no objection to that; for people do just the same, Matilda, for a baptism."
"You will be late, Maria," was all the answer her little sister made.
And they were late. Matilda was ready and waiting, before Maria"s slow preparations were made. They walked quick; but service had begun in the church before they got there. They paused in the vestibule till a prayer should be ended. And here Matilda was seized upon.
"I thought you were not coming," said an earnest whisper. "What made you come so late?" It was Norton Laval.
"I couldn"t help it," said Matilda.
"And when you came, I all but missed you. They said all of you--you know--would be in white dresses; and I was looking out for white.
Aren"t you going to be baptized, after all?"
"Oh yes, Norton."
"Well, here"s some flowers for you," said the boy, putting a bunch of white heath and lilies into Matilda"s hand. "Mamma is here; up in the Dawsons" pew; it was sold with the place, so we"ve got it. Come there, Matilda, it will be a good place for you; yours is farther back, you know. Mamma told me to bring you."
Maria had gone in, after an impatient whisper to her sister. And Matilda yielded to a secret inclination, and followed Norton.
The service of baptism was not entered into until the close of the evening. During one of the intervals of the usual service, which preceded the other, Matilda questioned with herself if she really would have done better to put on a white dress? Everybody seemed to expect it. She could not, from the Daweon pew, which was a corner front one, see how her companions were dressed. But she presently recollected that the "fine linen," which Mr. Richmond had talked to them about, "is the righteousness of saints;" and she quieted herself with the a.s.surance that the real attire of fitness is inward and not outward. And when the candidates for baptism were called to come forward, she quietly left her bunch of lilies with her hat on the cushion of the pew.
"Is that Matilda!" whispered Clarissa to her mother.
"I never heard a word of it!" said Mrs. Candy.
"You cannot stop her now."
"No; if I could I would," answered Mrs. Candy. "This ought not to be.
Such a child!--does not know what she is doing. What a way!"
But Matilda knew what she was doing; and when the candidates were asked respecting their faith and profession, there was no voice among them all that answered more clear and free; none that promised with more calm distinctness to "keep G.o.d"s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of her life." And it was a meek little face, without a cloud or a doubt upon it, that was raised towards Mr.
Richmond when her turn came.
There was a long line of candidates for baptism, reaching nearly from one end to the other of the communion rails. Mr. Richmond stood near one end, by the font, and did not change his place; so each one, as he or she received the rite, pa.s.sed to one side, while the place was filled by another. Without breaking the rank this was done; one set slowly edging along from left to right, while from right to left, one by one, the others came to take their turn. It was a pretty sight. So some thought; but there were varieties of opinion.
One variety Matilda had to encounter that night before she slept. Going back to Mrs. Laval"s pew to get her hat and flowers, naturally she walked home with her and Norton, and had no annoyance until she got there. As she went through the hall the parlour door opened and she was called in.
"I want to speak to you, Matilda," said Mrs. Candy; "and I think it is proper to do it at once. I want to know about this. How long have you been preparing for this step you have taken to-night?"
"Ma"am?" said Matilda.
"How long have you been thinking of doing this?"
"Oh, a long while, Aunt Candy."
"Why did you not consult me?"