Four Gates by Amy Le Feuvre

"And was it meet, thou tender flower, on thy young life to lay Such burden, pledging thee to vows thou never canst unsay? What if thou bear the Cross within, all aching and decay? And 'twas I that laid it on thee-what if thou fall away? Such is Love's deep misgiving when, stronger far than Faith, She brings her earthly darlings to the Cross for Life and Death. " KEBLE.

IT was a sweet morning in early June.

Honor sat in Miss Selkirk's drawing-room by the open window. Her baby was in her lap, but she was stitching busily. Miss Selkirk was gardening outside, and Fay was pretending to help her by carrying away the weeds that she was rooting up from her rose beds.

Honor heard their voices, and smiled at Miss Selkirk's grave, matter-of-fact replies to Fay's erratic remarks.

"I'm not putting the weedses on the bonfire, you know. I'm poking them down a deep hole with their heads topsy-turvy, 'acause I don't want to hurt the poor fings, and they will grow down to New Zealand, perhaps, and then they'll come out the right way up, and I dessay there's many poor children will be glad of some weeds in their gardings where they haven't any grass. Do you know, Aunt Marget, there's places where daddy has been that never grows no weeds nor nuffin'? It's all sand and sand and sand."

"That is desert," announced Miss Selkirk. "New Zealand has quite as much grass as England."

"Has it? I like sand better than earth, don't you? 'Acause it never muddies you. And in Heaven, you know, the paths are made of sugar, no sand or muddy earth at all. At least, I fink it is Heaven, or else it's Fairyland. And now I'll go and help dear Isaacs to clean his harness. Garding is tarsome when I feels so hot."

She was off in a minute. Miss Selkirk looked in at the drawing-room window.

"There speaks her father," she said with her little bitter smile. "Alick would never continue doing anything that was irksome to him."

"Fay is very young yet," said Honor apologetically.

"Not too young to be trained in habits of steadfastness of purpose and self-denial."

Honor made no answer.

Then Miss Selkirk continued at her rose beds. And when her task was finished, she came into the drawing-room and stood looking down upon the sleeping baby in silence.

"Do you mean him to be a second Alick? " she asked.

"I shall not train him as Alick was trained," said Honor firmly. "Will you never make allowances for him, Margaret?"

"I know you think me hard, but he made my mother suffer, and I can never forget that our old home is in the hands of strangers. There was no need to sell it. Mother saved all her life, and denied herself and us many pleasures, so that Alick should come into his inheritance unencumbered by debt. And that is how he repaid her! Sold every bit of it, with some of our priceless pictures and china, and has squandered the money away on himself and his pleasures."

Honor looked down upon her boy very thoughtfully. Then a pink flush came into her cheeks, making her look almost pretty. She looked up at Miss Selkirk with a sudden inspiration.

"And his son, Margaret, shall buy that inheritance back. I mean it. God willing, I will train him and teach him towards that end. It will be his lifework. He shall bring back the old home to the Selkirks, and you and I shall live to see it. I was thinking over his name-I want to call him Victor. There is so much in a name; it will give him hope from the beginning. And that is everything. If a child is taught from his infancy that with God's help he can overcome, if he feels that he is meant to be a victor over adverse circumstances, over trials, over temptations, he will have courage and energy and hope, which is half the battle."

Miss Selkirk was astonished at the enthusiasm in the quiet Honor's voice, but she was touched to the depths of her soul. She placed her hand gently on the baby's head.

"If he succeeds in righting what his father has done, he will have my blessing now. Name him Victor, if you like. His father will not object, I know. There was one Victor in our family many years ago."