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Elsie's children by Martha Finley

M >> Martha Finley >> Elsie\'s children




Rose was frightened and clung to her sister, trying to hide behind her.

"It's Aunt Enna; she won't hurt you," whispered Vi; "she never hurts any
one unless she is teased or worried into a passion."

"Won't she make me go with her! oh, don't let her, Vi."

"No, dear, you shall stay with me. And here is the nurse come to take her
away," Violet answered, as the poor lunatic was led from the room by her
attendant.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Miss Reed, who had not seen or heard of Enna before,
turning to Virginia, "does she belong in the house? aren't you afraid of
her?"

"Not at all; she is perfectly harmless. She is my mother's sister, and
lost her reason some years ago, by an accidental injury to the head."

"I wonder you don't send her to an asylum."

"Perhaps it might be as well," returned Virginia indifferently, "but it's
not my affair."

"Grandpa would never hear of such a thing!" said Isadore, indignantly.

"Mamma would not either, I am sure," said Violet. "Poor Aunt Enna! should
she be sent away from all who love her, just because she is unfortunate?"

"Every one to their taste," remarked the visitor, shrugging her shoulders.

Vi inquired for her Aunt Louise and the younger members of the family, and
was told that they and the grandfather were spending the day at
Pinegrove.

"I was glad they decided to go to-day," said Isadore, seating Vi and
herself comfortably on a sofa, then taking Rose on her lap and caressing
her, "because I wanted you here, and to have you to myself. You see these
two young ladies," glancing smilingly at her sister and guest, "are so
fully taken up with each other, that for the most of the time I am quite
_detrop_, and must look for entertainment elsewhere than in their
society."

"Yes," said Virginia, with more candor than politeness, "Josie and I are
all sufficient for each other; are we not, _mon amie_?"

"Very true, _machere_, yet I enjoy Isa's company, and am extremely
delighted to have made the acquaintance of your charming cousin," remarked
Miss Reed, with an insinuating bow directed to Violet.

"You do not know me yet," said Vi, modestly. "Though so tall, I am only a
little girl and do not know enough to make an interesting companion for a
young lady."

"Quite a mistake, Vi," said Isadore rising. "But there is the dinner-bell.
Come let us try the soothing and exhilarating effect of food and drink
upon our flagging spirits. We will not wait for Art; there's no knowing
when he can leave his patients; and Cal's away on business."

On leaving the table, Isadore carried off her young cousins to her own
apartments. Rose was persuaded to lie down and take a nap, while the
older girls conversed together in an adjoining room.

"Isn't it delightful to be at home again, after all those years in the
convent?" queried Vi.

"I enjoy home, certainly," replied Isa, "yet I deeply regretted leaving
the sisters; for you cannot think how good and kind they were to me. Shall
I tell you about it? about my life there?"

"Oh, do! I should so like to hear it."

Isadore smiled at the eager tone, the bright interested look, and at once
began a long and minute description of the events of her school-days at
the nunnery, ending with a eulogy upon convent life in general, and the
nuns who had been her educators, in particular. "They lived such holy,
devoted lives, were so kind, so good, so self-denying."

Violet listened attentively, making no remark, but Isadore read
disapproval more than once in her speaking countenance.

"I wish your mamma would send you and Elsie there to finish," remarked
Isa, breaking the pause which followed the conclusion of her narrative.
"Should you not like to go?"

"No, oh no, no!"

"Why not?"

"Isa, I could never, _never_ do some of those things you say they
require--bow to images or pictures, or kneel before them, or join in
prayers or hymns to the Virgin."

"I don't know how you could be so wicked as to refuse. She is the queen
of Heaven and mother of God."

"Isa!" and Violet looked inexpressibly shocked.

"You can't deny it. Wasn't Jesus God?"

"Yes; he is God. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.' 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us.'"

"Ah! and was not the Virgin Mary his mother?'"

Vi looked perplexed for a moment, then brightening, "Ah, I know now,'" she
said, "Jesus was God and man both.'"

"Well?"

"And--mamma told me--Mary was the mother of his human nature only, and it
is blasphemous to call her the mother of God; and to do her homage is
idolatry."

"So I thought before I went to the convent," said Isadore, "but the
sisters convinced me of my error. Vi, I should like to show you something.
Can you keep a secret?"

"I have never had a secret from mamma; I do not wish to have any."

"But you can't tell her everything now while she's away, and this concerns
no one but myself. I know I can trust to your honor," and taking Vi's
hand, she opened a door and drew her into a large closet, lighted by a
small circular window quite high up in the wall. The place was fitted up
as an oratory, with a picture of the Virgin and child, and a crucifix,
standing on a little table with a prayer-book and rosary beside it.

Vi had never seen such things, but she had heard of them and knew what
they signified. Glancing from the picture to the crucifix, she started
back in horror, and without a word hastily retreated to the dressing-room,
where she dropped into a chair, pale, trembling and distressed.

"Isadore, Isadore!" she cried, clasping her hands, and lifting her
troubled eyes to her cousin's face, "have you--have you become a papist?"

"I am a member of the one true church," returned her cousin coldly. "How
bigoted you are, Violet. I could not have believed it of so sweet and
gentle a young thing as you. I trust you will not consider it your duty to
betray me to mamma?"

"Betray you? can you think I would? So Aunt Louise does not know? Oh, Isa,
can you think it right to hide it from her--your own mother?"

"Yes; because I was directed to do so by my father confessor, and because
my motive is a good one, and 'the end sanctifies the means.'"

"Isa, mamma has taught me, and the Bible says it too, that it is never
right to do evil that good may come."

"Perhaps you and your mamma do not always understand the real meaning of
what the Bible says. It must be that many people misunderstand it, else
why are there so many denominations of Protestants, teaching opposite
doctrines, and all professing to get them from the Bible?"

Violet in her extreme youth and want of information and ability to argue,
was not prepared with an answer.

"Does Virgy know?" she asked.

"About my change of views and my oratory? Yes."

"And does she----"

"Virgy is altogether worldly, and cares nothing for religion of any kind."

Vi's face was full of distress; "Isa," she said, "may I ask you a
question?"

"What is it?"

"When you pray, do you kneel before that--that----"

"Crucifix? sometimes, at others before the Virgin and child."

Vi shuddered. "O Isa, have you forgotten the second commandment? 'Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve
them.'"

"I have not forgotten, but am content to do as the church directs,"
returned Isadore, coldly.

"Isa, didn't they promise Aunt Louise that they would not interfere with
your religion?"

"Yes."

"And then broke their promise. How can you think they are good?"

"They did it to save my soul. Was not that a good and praiseworthy
motive?"

"Yes; but if they thought it their duty to try to make you believe as they
do, they should not have promised not to do so."

"But in that case I should never have been placed in the convent, and they
would have had no opportunity to labor for my conversion."

Earnestly, constantly had Elsie endeavored to obey the command. "Therefore
shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind
them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your
eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou
sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest
down, and when thou risest up."

Thus Violet's memory was stored with texts, and these words from Isaiah
suggested themselves as a fit comment upon Isadore's last remark. "Woe
unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light
and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."




CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.

"But all's not true that supposition saith,
Nor have the mightiest arguments most faith."
--DRAYTON.

"Examples I could cite you more;
But be contented with these four;
For when one's proofs are aptly chosen,
Four are as valid as four dozen."
--PRIOR.


Isa's perversion, Isa's secret, weighed heavily upon the heart and
conscience of poor Violet; the child had never been burdened with a secret
before.

She thought Aunt Louise ought to know, yet was not at all clear that it
was her duty to tell her. She wished it might be discovered in some way
without her agency, for "it was a dreadful thing for Isa to be left to go
on believing and doing as she did. Oh, if only she could be talked to by
some one old enough and wise enough to convince her of her errors!"

Isadore with the zeal of a young convert, had set herself the task of
bringing Vi over to her new faith. The opportunity afforded by the absence
of the vigilant parents was too good to be lost, and should be improved to
the utmost.

She made daily errands to Ion, some trifling gift to Molly often being the
excuse, was sweet and gracious to all, but devoted herself especially to
Violet, insisting on sharing her room when she staid over night, coaxing
her out for long walks and drives, rowing with her on the lake, learning
to handle the oars herself in order that they might go alone.

And all the time she was on the watch for every favorable opening to say
something to undermine the child's faith, or bias her mind in favor of the
tenets of the church of Rome.

Violet grew more and more troubled and perplexed and now not on Isa's
account alone. She could not give up the faith of her fathers, the faith
of the Bible (to that inspired word she clung as to the rock which must
save her from being engulfed in the wild waters of doubt and difficulty
that were surging around her) but neither could she answer all Isadore's
questions and arguments, and there was no one to whom she might turn in
her bewilderment, lest she should betray her cousin's secret.

She prayed for guidance and help, searching the Scriptures and "comparing
spiritual things with spiritual," and thus was kept from the snares laid
for her inexperienced feet; she stumbled and walked with uncertain step
for a time, but did not fall.

Those about her, particularly Eddie and her old mammy, noticed the
unwonted care and anxiety in her innocent face, but attributed it wholly
to the unfavorable news in regard to Lily's condition, which reached them
from time to time.

The dear invalid was reported as making little or no progress toward
recovery, and the hearts of brothers and sisters were deeply saddened by
the tidings.

Miss Reed was still at Roselands, and had been brought several times by
Virginia for a call at Ion, and at length, Violet having written for and
obtained permission of her parents, and consulted Mrs. Daly's convenience
in reference to the matter, invited the three girls for a visit of several
days, stipulating, however, that it was not to interfere with lessons.

To this the girls readily assented; "they would make themselves quite at
home, and find their own amusement; it was what they should like above all
things."

The plan worked well, except that under this constant association with
Isadore, Vi grew daily more careworn and depressed. Even Mr. Daly noticed
it, and spoke to her of Lily's state as hopefully as truth would permit.

"Do not be too much troubled, my dear child," he said, taking her hand in
a kind fatherly manner. "She is in the hands of One who loves her even
better than her parents, brothers and sisters do, and will let no real
evil come nigh her. He may restore her to health, but if not--if he takes
her from us, it will be to make her infinitely happier with himself; for
we know that she has given her young heart to him."

Violet bowed a silent assent, then hurried from the room; her heart too
full for speech. She was troubled, sorely troubled for her darling,
suffering little sister, and with this added anxiety, her burden was hard
indeed to bear.

Mr. Daly was reading in the library that afternoon, when Violet came
running in as if in haste, a flush of excitement on her fair face.

"Ah, excuse me, sir! I fear I have disturbed you," she said, as he looked
up from his book; "but oh, I'm glad to find you here! for I think you will
help me. I came to look for a Bible and Concordance."

"They are both here on this table," he said. "I am glad you are wanting
them, for we cannot study them too much. But in what can I help you, Vi?
is it some theological discussion between your cousins and yourself?"

"Yes, sir; we were talking about a book--a story-book that Miss Reed
admires--and I said mamma would not allow us to read it, because it
teaches that Jesus Christ was only a good man; and Miss Reed said that was
her belief; and yet she professes to believe the Bible, and I wish to show
her, that it teaches that he was very God as well as man."

"That will not be difficult," he said; "for no words could state it more
directly and clearly than these, 'Christ, who is over all, God blessed
forever. Amen,'" And opening the Bible at the ninth chapter of Romans, he
pointed to the latter clause of the fifth verse.

"Oh, let me show her that!" cried Vi.

"Suppose you invite them in here," he suggested, and she hastened to do
so.

Miss Reed read the text as it was pointed out to her, "I don't remember
noticing that before," was all she said.

Silently Mr. Daly turned over the leaves and pointed out the twentieth
verse of the first Epistle of John, where it is said of Jesus Christ,
"This is the true God and eternal life;" and then to Isaiah ix. 6. "For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall
be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," and several
other passages equally strong and explicit in their declaration of the
divinity of Christ.

"Well," said Miss Reed, "if he was God, why didn't he say so?"

"He did again and again," was the reply "Here John viii. 58--we read
"Jesus said unto them, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham
was, I am.'""

"I don't see it!" she said sneeringly.

"You do not? just compare it with this other passage Exodus iii. 14, 15.
'And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I AM _hath sent me unto you_. And God said
moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is
children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers my name forever, and this
is my memorial unto all generations.' The Jews who were present understood
those words of Jesus as an assertion of his divinity and took up stones to
cast at him."

Isadore seemed interested in the discussion, but Virginia showed evident
impatience. "What's the use of bothering ourselves about it?" she
exclaimed at length, "what difference does it make whether we believe in
his divinity or deny it?"

"A vast deal of difference, my dear young lady," said Mr. Daly. "If Christ
be not divine, it is idolatry to worship him. If he is divine, and we fail
to acknowledge it and to trust in him for salvation, we must be eternally
lost for 'neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.' 'But
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.'"

Virginia fidgeted uneasily and Miss Reed inquired with affected
politeness, if that were all.

"No," he said, "far from it; yet if the Bible be--as I think we all
acknowledge--the inspired word of God, one plain declaration of a truth
is as authoritative as a dozen."

"Suppose I don't believe it is all inspired?" queried Miss Reed.

"Still, since Jesus asserts his own divinity, we must either accept him as
God, or believe him to have been an impostor and therefore not even a good
man. He must be to us everything or nothing; there is no neutral ground;
he says, 'He that is not with me is against me.'"

"And there is only one true church," remarked Isadore, forgetting herself;
"the holy Roman Church, and none without her pale can be saved."

Mr. Daly looked at her in astonishment. Violet was at first greatly
startled, then inexpressibly relieved; since Isa's secret being one no
longer, a heavy weight was removed from her heart and conscience.

Virginia was the first to speak. "There!" she said, "you've let it out
yourself; I always knew you would sooner or later."

"Well," returned Isadore, drawing herself up haughtily, determined to put
a brave face upon the matter, now that there was no retreat, "I'm not
ashamed of my faith; nor afraid to attempt its defence against any who may
see fit to attack it," she added with a defiant look at Mr. Daly.

He smiled a little sadly. "I am very sorry for you, Miss Conly," he said,
"and do not feel at all belligerent toward you; but let me entreat you to
rest your hopes of salvation only upon the atoning blood and imputed
righteousness of Jesus Christ."

"I must do good works also," she said.

"Yes as an evidence, but not as the ground of your faith; we must do good
works not that we may be saved, but because we are saved. 'If a man love
me, he will keep my words.' Well, my little Vi? what is it?" for she was
looking at him with eager, questioning eyes.

"O, Mr. Daly, I want you to answer some things Isa has said to me. Isa, I
have never mentioned it to any one before. I have kept your secret
faithfully, till now that you have told it yourself."

"I don't blame you, Vi," she answered coloring. "I presume I shall be
blamed for my efforts to bring you over to the true faith, but my
conscience acquits me of any bad motive. I wanted to save your soul. Mr.
Daly, I do not imagine you can answer all that I have to bring against the
claims of Protestantism. Pray where was that church before the
Reformation?"

There was something annoying to the girl in the smile with which he heard
her question.

"Wherever the Bible was made the rule of faith and practice," he said,
"there was Protestantism though existing under another name. All through
the dark ages, when Popery was dominant almost all over the civilized
world, the light of a pure gospel--the very same that the Reformation
spread abroad over other parts of Europe--burned brightly among the
secluded valleys of Piedmont; and twelve hundred years of bloody
persecution on the part of apostate Rome could not quench it.

"I know that Popery lays great stress on her claims to antiquity, but
Paganism is older still, and evangelical religion--which, as I have
already said, is Protestantism under another name--is as old as the
Christian Era; as the human nature of its founder, the Lord Jesus Christ."

"You are making assertions," said Isadore bridling, "but where are your
proofs?"

"They are not wanting," he said. "Suppose we undertake the study of
ecclesiastical history together, and see how Popery was the growth of
centuries, as one error after another crept into the Christian church."

"I don't believe she was ever the persecutor you would make her out to
have been," said Isadore.

"Popish historians bear witness to it as well as Protestant," he answered.

"Well, it's persecution to bring up those old stories against her now."

"Is it? when she will not disavow them, but maintains that she has always
done right? and more than that, tells us she will do the same again if
ever she has the power."

"I'm sure all Romanists are not so cruel as to wish to torture or kill
their Protestant neighbors," cried Isadore indignantly.

"And I quite agree with you there," he said; "I have not the least doubt
that many of them are very kind-hearted; but I was speaking, not of
individuals, but of the Romish Church as such. She is essentially a
persecuting power."

"Well, being the only true church, she has the right to compel conformity
to her creed."

"Ah, you have already imbibed something of her spirit. But we contend that
she is not the true church. 'To the law and to the testimony; if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them.' Brought to the touch-stone of God's revealed word, she is proved to
be reprobate silver; her creed spurious Christianity. In second
Thessalonians, second chapter, we have a very clear description of her as
that 'Wicked whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and
shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.' Also, in the seventeenth
of Revelation, where she is spoken of as 'Babylon the great, the mother of
harlots and abominations of the earth.'"

"How do you know she is meant there?" asked Isadore, growing red and
angry.

"Because she, and she alone, answers to the description. It is computed
that fifty millions of Protestants have been slain in her persecutions;
may it not then be truly said of her that she is drunken with the blood of
the saints?"

"I think what you have been saying shows that the priests are right in
teaching that the Bible is a dangerous book in the hands of the ignorant,
and should therefore be withheld from the laity," retorted Isadore hotly.

"But," returned Mr. Daly, "Jesus said, 'Search the Scriptures; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.'"




CHAPTER NINETEENTH.

"Let us go back again mother,
Oh, take me home to die."


"And so, Isa, my uncle's predictions that your popish teachers would
violate their promise not to meddle with your faith, have proved only too
true," said Calhoun Conly, stepping forward, as Mr. Daly finished his last
quotation from the Scriptures.

In the heat of their discussion, neither the minister nor Isadore had
noticed his entrance, but he had been standing there, an interested
listener, long enough to learn the sad fact of his sister's perversion.

"They only did their duty, and I shall not have them blamed for it," she
said, haughtily.

"They richly deserve blame, and you cannot prevent it from being given
them," he answered firmly, and with flashing eyes. "I have come, by my
mother's request, to take you and Virginia home, inviting Miss Reed to
accompany us."

"I am ready," said Isadore, rising, the others doing likewise.

"But you will stay to tea?" Violet said. "Cal, you are not in too great
haste for that?"

"I'm afraid I am, little cousin," he answered with a smile of
acknowledgment of her hospitality. "I must meet a gentleman on business,
half an hour from now."

Vi expressed her regrets, and ran after the girls, who had already left
the room to prepare for their drive.

They seemed in haste to get away.

"We've had enough of Mr. Daly's prosing about religion," said Virginia.

"I'm sick of it," chimed in Miss Reed, "what difference does it make what
you believe, if you're only sincere and live right?"

"'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,'" said Violet; "and
'the just shall live by faith.'"

"You're an apt pupil," sneered Virginia.

"It is mamma's doing that my memory is stored with texts," returned the
child, reddening.

Isadore was silent and gloomy, and took leave of her young cousin so
coldly, as to quite sadden her sensitive spirit.

Violet had enjoyed being made much of by Isa, who was a beautiful and
brilliant young lady, and this sudden change in her manner was far from
pleasant. Still the pain it gave her was greatly overbalanced by the
relief of having her perplexities removed, her doubts set at rest.

Standing on the veranda, she watched the carriage as it rolled away down
the avenue, then hailed with delight a horseman who came galloping up,
alighted and giving the bridle to Solon, turned to her with open arms, and
a smile that proclaimed him the bearer of good tidings, before he uttered
a word.

"Grandpa," she cried, springing to his embrace, "Oh, is Lily better?"

"Yes," he said, caressing her, then turning to greet Rosie and the boys,
who had come running at the sound of his voice. "I have had a letter from
your mother, in which she says the dear invalid seems decidedly better."

"Oh, joy! joy!" cried the children, Rosie hugging and kissing her
grandfather, the boys capering about in a transport of gladness.

"And will they come home soon, grandpa?" asked Eddie.

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