human
You are angry with me, Angus.
gpt
No, my darling, he answered,
human
You must not be sorry for me. You have anxieties enough. I must not add to them. Not all the Miss Harmans that ever breathe shall bring a cloud between you and me. Angus, may I put out the gas and then sit close to you? You shall talk me out of this feeling, for I do feel bad.
gpt
I will talk all night if it makes you better, my own Lottie. Now, what is troubling you?
human
In the first instance, you don't seem to believe this story about our money.
gpt
I neither believe it, nor the reverse--I simply don't let it trouble me.
human
But, Angus, that seems a little hard; for if the money was left to me by my father I ought to have it. Think what a difference it would make to us all--you, and me, and the children?
gpt
We should be rich instead of poor. It would make that difference, certainly.
human
Angus, you talk as if this difference was nothing.
gpt
Nothing! It is not quite nothing; but I confess it does not weigh much with me.
human
If not for yourself, it might for the children's sakes; think what a difference money would make to our darlings.
gpt
My dear wife, you quite forgot when speaking so, that they are God's little children as well as ours. He has said that not a sparrow falls without His loving knowledge. Is it likely when that is so, that He will see His children and ours either gain or suffer from such a paltry thing as money?
human
Then you will do nothing to get back our own?
gpt
If you mean that I will go to law on the chance of our receiving some money which may have been left to us, certainly I will not. The fact is, Lottie--you may think me very eccentric--but I cannot move in this matter. It seems to me to be entirely God's matter, not ours. If Mr. Harman has committed the dreadful sin you impute to him, God must bring it home to him. Before that poor man who for years has hidden such a sin in his heart, and lived such a life before his fellow-men, is fit to go back to the arms of His father, he must suffer dreadfully. I pray, from my heart I pray, that if he committed the sin he may have the suffering, for there is no other road to the Father; but I cannot pray that this awful suffering may be sent to give us a better house, and our children finer clothes, and that richer food may be put on our table.
human
Angus, forgive me, I did not look at it in that light.
gpt
No, my dearest, and because I so pity her, if her father really is guilty, I do not want you unnecessarily to pain Miss Harman. You remember my telling you of that fine girl I met in Regent's Park yesterday, the girl who was so kind and nice to our children. I have just been up with Harold, and he tells me that your Miss Harman and his pretty lady are one and the same.
human
Is that really so? answered Mrs. Home.
gpt
Yes. I know that Charlotte Harman is very attractive. Did I not tell you, Angus, that she had won my own heart? But I confess when I saw those gifts and read her note I felt angry. I thought after hearing my tale she should have done more. These presents seemed to me in the light of a bribe.
human
Charlotte!
gpt
Ah! I know you are shocked. You cannot see the thing with my eyes; that is how they really looked to me.
human
Then, my dear wife, may I give you a piece of advice?
gpt
That is what I am hungering for, Angus.
human
Tell the whole story, as frankly--more frankly than you have told it to me, to God to-night. Lay the whole matter in the loving hands of your Father, then, Charlotte; after so praying, if in the morning you still think Miss Harman was actuated by so mean a spirit, treat her as she deserves. With your own hands deal the punishment to her, send everything back.