Oh,
father, it would rejoice me so much if you could respond to my sacrifice
with a better life!"
"God help me, I will!" he sobbed.
"That is very comforting to me. I will not enumerate your omissions,
dear father, but if this important step in my life does not arrest some
sad tendencies I see in you, the disappointment may break me down.
Intemperance in you--a judge, a gentleman, a husband, and a father--is a
deformity worse than Mr. Milburn's honest, unfashionable hat. Do you not
feel happier that my husband is not to be a drunkard?"
"He has not that vice, thank God!" admitted the Judge.
"Be his better example, father, for I hope to see you influence him to
be kind to me, and the sight of you walking downward in his view will
degrade me more than bearing his name or sharing his eccentricities. Oh,
if you love me, let not your dear soul slide out of the knowledge of
God!"
"Pray for me, dear child! My feet are slippery and my knees are weak."
"Begin from this moment to lean on Heaven," said Vesta. "It is better
than this world's consideration. Oh, what would strengthen me now but
God's approval, though I go into a captivity I dreamed not of. Even
there I can take my harp beneath the willows, like them in Babylon, and
praise my Maker."
She sat at her piano and sang the hymn the young consumptive, Rev. Mr.
Eastburn, composed in her grandmother's house, taking it from the
Episcopal collection:
"O holy, holy, holy Lord!
Bright in Thy deeds and in Thy name,
Forever be Thy name adored,
Thy glories let the world proclaim!
"O Jesus, Lamb once crucified
To take our load of sins away,
Thine be the hymn that rolls its tide
Along the realms of upper day!
"O Holy Spirit from above,
In streams of light and glory given,
Thou source of ecstacy and love,
Thy praises ring through earth and heaven!"
As her voice in almost supernatural clearness and sweetness filled the
two large rooms, and died away in melody, she rose and kissed her father
again, and said, "Courage, love! we shall be happy still.
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