"Indeed, miss, and it do.There's not a tradesman's boy but has his joke or his word about Mr.Raeburn," said the cook in an injured voice."And last Sunday when I went to the minister to show my lines, he said a member ought to be ashamed to take service with a hatheist and that I was in an 'ouse of 'ell.Those was his very words, miss, an 'ouse of 'ell, he said.""Then it was exceedingly impertinent of him," said Erica, "for he knew nothing whatever about it."After that there was nothing for it but to accept the resignation, and to begin once more the weary search for that rara avis, "a good plain cook."Her interview had only just ended when she heard the front door open.She listened intently, but apparently it was only Tom; he came upstairs singing a refrain with which just then she quite agreed:
'LAW, law Rhymes very well with jaw, If you're fond of litigation, And sweet procrastination, Latin and botheration, I advise you to go to law.""Halloo!" he exclaimed."So you did get home all right? I like your way of acting Casabianca! The chieftain sent me tearing out after you, and when I got there, you had vanished!""Brian came up just then," said Erica, "and I thought it better not to wait.Oh, here comes father."Raeburn entered as she spoke.No one who saw him would have guessed that he was an overworked, overworried man, for his face was a singularly peaceful one, serene with the serenity of a strong nature convinced of its own integrity.
"Got some tea for us, Eric?" he asked, throwing himself back in a chair beside the fire.
Some shade of trouble in her face, invisible to any eye but that of a parent, made him watch her intently, while a new hope which made his heart beat more quickly sprang up within him.Christians had not shown up well that day; prosecuting and persecuting Christians are the most repulsive beings on earth! Did she begin to feel a flaw in the system she had professed belief in? Might she by this injustice come to realize that she had unconsciously cheated herself into a belief? If such things might win her back to him, might bridge over that miserable gulf between them, then welcome any trouble, any persecution, welcome even ruin itself.
But had he been able to see into Erica's heart, he would have learned that the grief which had left its traces on her face was the grief of knowing that such days as these strengthened and confirmed him in his atheism.Erica was indeed ever confronted with one of the most baffling of all baffling mysteries.How was it that a man of such grand capacities, a man with so many noble qualities, yet remained in the darkness? One day she put that question sadly enough to Charles Osmond.
"Not darkness, child, none of your honest secularists who live up to their creed are in darkness," he replied."However mistakenly, they do try to promote what they consider the general good.Were you in such absolute blackness before last summer?""There was the love of Humanity," said Erica musingly.
"Yes, and what is that but a ray of the light of life promised to all who, to any extent, follow Christ? It is only the absolutely selfish who are in the black shadow.The honest atheist is in the penumbra, and in his twilight sees a little bit of the true sun, though he calls it Humanity instead of Christ.""Oh, if the shadows would but go!" exclaimed Erica.
"Would!" he said, laughing gently."Why, child, they will, they must!""But now, I mean! 'Here down,' as Mazzini would have said.""You were ever an impatient little mortal.""How can one help being impatient for this," she said with a quick sigh.
"That is what I used to say myself seven years ago over you," he said smiling."But I learned that the Father knew best, and that if we would work with Him we must wait with Him too.You musn't waste your strength in impatience, child, you need every bit of it for the life before you."But patience did not come by nature to a Raeburn, and Erica did not gain it in a day even by grace.
