Straight Forward by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

MR. AND MRS. MASON arrived next morning, and had rather a lengthened conversation with Mrs. Pomeroy, before they were admitted to see Delia, who continued very unwell, and seemed threatened with serious illness. Poor Delia meantime was trembling with conflicting emotions, among which shame, perhaps, predominated. She had, as Mrs. Pomeroy requested, read through all the returned letters, from beginning to end. The task was a hard one, but it did her good. Now that her eyes were opened to the man's real character, she wondered what it could have been about him that fascinated her.

"But I never really did care for him," she said to Emily. "My vanity was flattered by his attentions, and I thought there was something very interesting in having a secret correspondence. There were plenty of such things going on at the Gymnasium, and some of the teachers knew it well enough, too. I have seen Miss Jenkins look the other way, very hard indeed, when she knew, as well as they did, that the girls were doing things that were forbidden. But the poor thing was so overworked, and the girls plagued her so, that it was no wonder if she was glad to buy a little peace at any price. How long they stay down stairs! I do wish they would come up, and yet I dread to see them, especially mother. I have acted so shamefully towards her."

"Don't excite yourself," said Emily, seeing that Delia was growing feverish again. "If your mother is as good as every one says, I am sure you have no cause to fear her. Oh, dear me! I only wish I had a mother to turn to."

The door opened as she spoke, and Mrs. Pomeroy entered, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Mason. Mr. Mason had been very angry at hearing of his daughter's misconduct, and had fully determined to treat her with great sternness, a resolution from which Mrs. Pomeroy had attempted in vain to dissuade him. As they were going up stairs, however, Mrs. Mason dropped behind and whispered to her.

"You need have no fear of Mr. Mason's using any undue severity. You will see how it will be!"

Delia was still confined to her bed, but she raised herself, as they entered, and looked eagerly towards them. She had grown very thin and pale of late, and her black eyes looked unnaturally large and bright. She did not speak at first. Mr. Mason made an effort to deliver his intended reproof.

"Delia! " he began, with an extra amount of sternness in his voice, as he felt his courage giving way at the sight of his daughter. "I am very much shocked-I could never have believed that a daughter of mine-bless me, how thin she is-why she looks like a ghost. There, there, don't cry, poor dear, and we won't say any more about it, just now. It is all over, and you have only to get well, and try to do better in future."

Mrs. Mason glanced at Mrs. Pomeroy, as she stooped to kiss Delia, while Mr. Mason walked away to the window, to blow his nose and wipe his spectacles.

"Oh, mother! " were Delia's first words. "If I had only been guided by you, I should never have been where I am."

"Try not to agitate yourself, my love," was Mrs. Mason's quiet reply. "We can talk of that another time. You must keep yourself quiet as possible now, in order not to increase your fever. Mrs. Pomeroy has told us the whole story, and we are ready to forgive every thing. Nobody else knows any thing of the matter, and you have nothing more to fear from your persecutor."

"I don't want you to judge him too hardly, mother," said Delia. How naturally the word mother now came to her lips, and how she wondered that she should ever have found it so hard to speak. "I do not think Mr. Hugo was nearly so much to blame as myself. He would never have thought of such a thing, if I had behaved properly."

"I dare say not," said Mrs. Mason. "In ninety-nine such cases out of a hundred, the fault rests more with the woman than the man. If a girl respects herself, other people will respect her."

"I think it will be hard for me to respect myself, after this," said Delia, sighing. "I am sure I cannot expect others to respect me. It does not seem as though I could ever look any one in the face again."

"That very humility must be your safeguard, my child. But Delia, there is One against whom you have offended far more than against any earthly friend. Have you asked forgiveness of Him?"

"Yes, mother," replied Delia, in a low voice, "but it is very hard for me to think that He will forgive me. I don't feel so."

"You have a surer witness than any mere feeling, my dear."

Delia looked at her, inquiringly.

"You have the promises of God, expressed in Holy Scripture, that no repentant sinner who comes seeking forgiveness through the intercession and merits of our Saviour, will be cast out. Feeling is a very uncertain thing, at the best; and often leads us astray, but not so the promises of God. There is no variableness nor shadow of turning in them."

"That is something like what Emily says," observed Delia. "She was very religious when she first came to school, but she says now that it was all feeling, and that she had no more principle than I had."

"Probably that is true," said Mrs. Mason. "They are often mistaken, the one for the other."