Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles Part 135

"Not altogether self-educated," dissented the dean; "for the two younger, the barrister and clergyman, were in the school attached to my cathedral; but self-educated in a great degree. The eldest, my friend's son-in-law, never had a lesson in the cla.s.sics after his father's death, and there's not a more finished scholar in the county."

"The father died and left them badly provided for," remarked Sir William.

"He did not leave them provided for at all, Sir William," corrected Mr.

Ashley. "He left nothing, literally nothing, but the furniture of the small house they rented; and he left some trifling debts. Poor Mrs.

Halliburton turned to work with a will, and not only contrived to support them, but brought them up to be what you see them--high-minded, honourable, educated men."

The judge turned his eyes on Jane. She was sitting on a distant sofa, talking with the bishop. So quiet, so lady-like, nay--so attractive--she looked still, in the rich pearl-grey dress warn at William's wedding; not in the least like one who had had to toil hard for bread.

"I have heard of her--heard of her worth from Frank," he said, with emphasis. "She must be one in a thousand."

"One in a million, Sir William," burst forth Henry Ashley. "When they were boys, you could not have bribed them to do a wrong thing: neither temptation nor anything else turned them from the right. And they would not be turned from the right now, if I know anything of them."

The judge walked up to Jane, and took the seat beside her just vacated by the bishop.

"Mrs. Halliburton," said he, "you must be proud of your sons."

Jane smiled. "I have latterly been obliged to take myself to task for being so, Sir William," she answered.

"To task! I wish I had three such sons to take myself to task for being proud of," was his answer. "Not that mine are to be found fault with; but they are not like these."

"Do you think Frank will get on?" she asked him.

"It is no longer a question of getting on. He has begun to rise in an unusually rapid manner. I should not be surprised if, in after-years, he may find the very highest honours opening to him."

Again Jane smiled. "He has been in the habit of telling us that he looks forward to ruling England as Lord Chancellor."

The judge laughed. "I never knew a newly-fledged barrister who did not indulge that vision," said he. "I know I did. But there are really not many Frank Halliburtons. So, sir," he continued, for Frank at that moment pa.s.sed, and the judge pinned him, "I hear you cherish dreams of the woolsack."

"To look at it from a distance is not high treason, Sir William," was Frank's ready answer.

"Why, what do you suppose _you_ would do on the woolsack, if you got there?" cried Sir William.

"My duty, I hope, Sir William. I would try hard for it."

Sir William loosed him with an amused expression, and Frank pa.s.sed on.

Jane began to think Frank's dream--not of the woolsack, but of Maria Leader--not so very improbable a one.

"I have heard of your early struggles," said the judge to her in low tones. "Frank has talked to me. How you could have borne up, and done long-continued battle with them, I cannot imagine!"

"I never could have done it but for one thing," she answered: "my trust in G.o.d. Times upon times, Sir William, when the storm was beating about my head, I had no help or comfort in the wide world: I had nothing to turn to but that. I never lost my trust in G.o.d."

"And therefore G.o.d stood by you," remarked the judge.

"And _therefore_ G.o.d stood by me, and helped me on. I wish," she added earnestly, "the whole world could learn the same great lesson that I have learnt. I have--I humbly hope I have--been enabled to teach it to my boys. I have tried to do it from their very earliest years."

"Frank shall have Maria," thought the judge to himself. "They are an admirable family. The young chaplain should have another of the girls if he liked her."

What was William thinking of, as he stood a little apart, with his serene brow and his thoughtful smile? His mind was in the past. That long past night, following the day of his entrance to Mr. Ashley's manufactory, was present to him, when he had lain down in despair, and sobbed out his bitter grief. "Bear up, my child," were the words his mother had comforted him with: "only do your duty, and trust implicitly in G.o.d." And when she had gone down, and he could get the sobs away from his heart and throat, he made the resolve to do as she had told him--at any rate, to try and do it. And he kneeled down there and then, and asked to be helped to do it. And, from that hour to this, William had never known the trust to fail. Success? Yes, they had reaped success--success in no measured degree. Be very sure that it was born of that great trust. Oh!--as Jane had just said to Sir William Leader--if the world could only learn this wonderful truth!

"BECAUSE HE HATH SET HIS LOVE UPON ME, THEREFORE WILL I DELIVER HIM: I WILL SET HIM UP, BECAUSE HE HATH KNOWN MY NAME."

THE END.