“It is all right, I see.” I had drawn a chair close to the one in which Mrs. Montgomery sat, and was holding in mine the thin, almost shadowy hand which she had extended.
“Yes, it is all right, Doctor,” she answered, as a smile lit up her pale face. “All right, and I am numbered among the happiest of mothers. He is not titled, nor rich, nor noble in the vulgar sense--but titled, and rich, and noble as God gives rank and wealth. I came to this land of promise ten years ago, in search of an estate for my child; and I have found it, at last. Ah, Doctor”--and site glanced upwards as she spoke--“His ways are not as our ways. And if we will only trust in Him, He will bring such things to pass, as never entered into the imagination of our hearts. I did not dream of this man as the husband of my child, when I gave my business into his care. The remote suggestion of such a thing would have offended me; for my heart was full of false pride, though I knew it not. But there was a destiny for Blanche, foreshadowed for me then, but not seen.”
“It is the quality of the man,” I said, “that determines the quality of the marriage. She who weds best, weds the truest man. The rank and wealth are of the last consideration. To make them first, is the blindest folly of the blindest.”
“Ah, if this were but rightly understood”--said Mrs. Montgomery--“what new lives would people begin to live in the world! How the shadows that dwell among so many households--even those of the fairest external seeming--would begin to lift themselves upward and roll away, letting in the sunlight and filling the chambers of discord with heavenly music! I have sometimes thought, that more than half the misery which curses the world springs from discordant marriages.”
“The estimate is low,” I answered. “If you had said two-thirds, you would have been, perhaps, nearer the truth.”
Blanche crossed the room, and came and stood by her mother's chair, looking down into her face with a loving smile.
“I am afraid the journey has been too much for you,” she said, with a shadow of concern in her face.
“Paler, because a little fatigued, dear. But a night's rest will bring me up even again,” Mrs. Montgomery replied cheerfully.
“How is the pain in your side, now?” asked Blanche, still with a look of concern.