Flaxman seeing me said, abruptly,
"Why, Mr. Winthrop, here is our runaway."
He turned towards me, a startled look in his eyes. "Have you been out?"
he asked, with some surprise at her remark.
"Yes," I looked at him with a pathetic interest never felt before.
"Visiting your Mill Road pensioners?" he said, with a peculiar gesture,
as if trying to rid himself of some unpleasant reflection.
"Not to-day, I do not go there every time I am out."
"No, indeed, Medoline does not confine her kindness to those poor folk
alone," Mrs. Flaxman interposed.
"You do not seek for the sorrowful elsewhere, I hope?"
"The heavy-hearted are not confined to that locality alone, Mr.
Winthrop."
"You include those also in your ministries of mercy," he said, with that
rare smile which strongly reminded me of a bright gleam of sunshine
falling on a hidden pool.
"I am not so vain as to think I can reach their case. After I have
experienced the ministry of sorrow, I may touch sad hearts and comfort
them."
"You are not anxious to suffer in order to do this. Remember, misery
sometimes hardens."
"If we take our miseries to God, He can turn them into blessed evangels,"
I replied softly.
"Where did you learn that secret, Medoline?"
"It was Mr. Bowen who taught me. God left him in the darkness, and then
gave him songs in the night--such grand harmonies, his life became like
a thanksgiving Psalm."
"I hope you are not going to indulge in cant, Medoline. It does very well
for poor beggars like them; but for the enlightened and refined it is
quite out of place.
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