As the night wore on, Victoria grew alarmed over the condition of her charge and sent her father's nurse out for the doctor. When he came he succeeded in quieting the girl but the shock to her system from exposure and the subsequent reaction due to Victoria's rescue of her led to an illness which lasted nearly a month. During the latter part of that time Victoria learned a part of her strange history and in the weeks that followed the girl confided to her all the story of her brief but eventful struggle for existence.

Her name was Rachel Brooks. It was the same old story of genteel poverty in a proud family living in a small town. Rachel had endured it as long as she could and at last when matters in the home had reached a crisis she had come away to the great city determined to make her own living and be independent of every one. She was a beautiful seamstress and at first succeeded in getting work in a large establishment where more than fifty girls were employed. She might have succeeded in providing for all the necessities, small as her pay was if she had not been taken ill after being in the city a few months.

The close confinement, the long hours, the insufficient and coarse food at the cheap boarding-house, the homesickness, the lack of friendly acquaintances all wore upon the girl's sensitive spirit and one day she lay down tired out in her little room under the roof of the boarding house and when she came back to full knowledge of her surroundings she had been ill with fever for two months. What little money she had been able to save was gone for doctors and medicines and attendance. Her place at the establishment was lost. She wandered over the city seeking for work. Her pretty face, even more delicate and refined since her illness attracted notice, and shame be it said of human kind, insult. She grew desperate. There was no help to come from home. Why did she not hunt up some good Christian people, go to some church, tell her story to some one of the many benevolent societies in the great city? Surely there are always in Christian America numbers of warm loving Christian homes and hearts ready to rescue such souls as hers.

Yes, but how to get the two together? Rachel was lost in that great whirl of humanity. The eager haste and indifference of the world smote her with desolation. It was a time of great distress for the working wage earning world. Hundreds of girls like her were hunting for places. At one establishment where she went in answer to a small advertisement she saw in a paper, she found seventy-five eager, anxious applicants. At last her boarding mistress refused to give her any more credit. She had sold every article of any value she possessed and given the money she received to her landlady and that afternoon had left the house. She had no plans. In telling her story to Victoria she could not recall where she went. Near midnight after having walked probably miles without anything to eat, without protection from the cold rain, with a fire of despair eating into her soul she came upon the bridge. She had been there some time before Victoria touched her. In that time the draw had swung around twice.

Once she had been at the end next the water when the bridge swung open. She had thought wildly of the peace and rest that might be found at the bottom of the river. Her brain was on fire. Her body reeled and trembled. She was drenched with the cold, remorseless rain. She was looking into Hell within and without. There was no God any more. And no heaven. And no love in the world. The universe was a great curse and life was a part of the curse.

It was just then that Victoria had touched her and spoken to her. If an angle had appeared to draw her up into the bliss and warmth and rest of heaven, Rachel could not have clutched him with more eagerness. As she turned and took hold of Victoria it seemed to her as though she had already jumped off the bridge and the cold black water would roll over her forever unless she seized this unexpected deliverer. So she clung to Victoria like a drowning person. For the time being Victoria was God to her. A miracle. And the poor soul sank into the weeks' illness that naturally followed such excitement, conscious all through it of the gentle loving face that bent over her and nursed her back again into the warmth and love and faith she had come so near losing forever out of her heart.

One day as she was sitting up and growing stronger with every breath in the atmosphere of Victoria's strong cheerful presence, Rachel said, "I must be getting out to look for work soon. I shall never be able to repay you for your great kindness to me." Her eyes filled with tears and over her face began to steal the old anxious look as she looked forward to the renewal of the struggle for existence.

"You are not going to leave me at all. That is all settled. You are going to stay here with me until I tell you to go," Victoria spoke with authority.

"But you have your father to care for," faltered Rachel, whose heart could not resist the longing to accept the haven of rest which Victoria lovingly offered her.

"You can help me care for him. You must not say another word. You have come to me in such a way that nothing could satisfy me except your making this your home." Victoria went over and put her arm about Rachel. The girl yielded to her with tears running over the pale face, and from that hour a great friendship dated, which death itself cannot sever, for it is of those friendships that belong to the endless life.

After that it seemed to the friends as if they had always known each other. Victoria's father took a wonderful liking to Rachel. She was the gentlest, most thoughtful nurse. Although for a long time she was not strong enough to do the work of a professional nurse she rendered service in other ways such as a hired stranger would not generally give. The most perfect understanding existed between her and Victoria. After a time Rachel found a position and had the satisfaction of being financially independent. That was after Mr. Stanwood's death. But before that she remained at the house, seldom going out except once in a while to accompany Victoria to a Symphony. She was passionately fond of music and her love of Victoria was increased by a certain worship of her great gift with the violin. As for Victoria she came to love the soul she had saved with a love that grew every day. Rachel was like a younger sister. The heart ache of Victoria over Victor's wasted and broken career found some soothing in the complete devotion Rachel showed. Since Aura's death hers was the only life that had come close enough to satisfy her longing for companionship.

One Monday night Victoria took Rachel to the Question Class. She was shy and a little reluctant to go, but her sweet face pleased the company and after the first awkwardness she enjoyed the easy informality of everything. There was no more eager listener that night than Rachel. It was all so mew to her and one or two of the questions touched her very closely. John King began as usual with a little preliminary talk, to take out the questions from the little olive wood box on the table.

"We are behind on the answers and as I understand some of the class are impatient to hear their questions taken up I will condense the answers to-night. You must remember that I am not truing to give you complete answers at any time. They are mostly suggestive."

Question. "Do you think it is right for the government to spend three million dollars in building a great war ship when the same amount of money would give ten times as many persons necessary employment and produce things that we need a great deal more than war ships?"

"A good many Christians people think that it is absolutely necessary for the United States to have a large navy in order to preserve the peace and dignity of our country at home and defend the rights of our citizens abroad. I do not hold that view myself, as I believe that great standing armies and navies are a source of constant drain and enormous taxation on the people of a country and the money spent in equipping and maintaining them is to my mind unnecessary. So I do not believe this country needs to spend three million dollars on a war ship so much as it needs to spend it on something more useful and urgent, demanded by the human misery and poverty of the times."

Question. "If goodness in mightier than evil, why does evil appear to have the upper hand?"

"Appearances are deceitful. We do not see the end from the beginning. And that is the reason evil appears to have the better of the world. Then again wickedness gets more free advertising than goodness. Every daily paper eagerly prints accounts of crimes. Crimes are news. Good deeds, daily virtue, temperance, Christian homes, truthfulness, honesty, the papers don't print long columns about these every day acts. They are not news. They are too common. The church does a thousand good deeds that the world never hears of. Evil seems to have it all its own way. But it is temporary. The devil is not superior to God. He is not even His equal. He is inferior. And in the great end of all things he shall be finally overthrown."

Question. "Not more than one out of every five young men in the United States is a member of a church or an attendant on church services. Is that a proof of the weakness of the churches or what?"

"A proof of the weakness of the young men, I should say. The church has a good deal to answer for, but I don't believe in loading all the responsibility upon her. The greatest reason why four out of five young men are not in any way connected with the church is because they prefer to belong to other organizations or to none at all. They do not want to give up their vices or their selfishness and become disciples of the lowly Christ. It is just as true now as it was in Christ's own life time. Men will not come unto Him that they might have eternal life."

Question. "Should our love for God be like our love for our earthly friends?"

"Yes. God is a father. We are His children. How else shall we love Him? The love we have for Him should be like that we give our earthly friends only greater in degree. For we owe Him more. He has done more for us. He is able to do more for us in the great future. Our love for our earthly friends where it is pure and true is just like the love we should have for God. Don't you remember Christ said to those who had visited the sick and fed the hungry and ministered to the sinful, ‘For as much as ye have done it to one of these least (human beings) my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' Love for humanity is an expression of our love to God. God is not so different from us that he must be loved in a different manner. He is a father. He is like us. We are like Him. We have the same likeness. We are made in His image. Love is not two things. It is eternally one and the same. And whenever we love with unselfish, pure, joyful love one of our earthly friends we are at the same time loving God. There is no other way to love Him."

Question. "What is Hell?"

"The Bible speaks of Hell as a place, just as it speaks of Heaven as a place. It also speaks of it as a condition of the soul, a condition of rebellion and of misery, brought about by a refusal to do the will of God. Hell is the absence of God in the soul whether that soul be in any particular place or not. Hell is a condition where the soul is out of harmony with the will of God."

Question. "Is it Christian for society to spend so much time and money in pleasure?"

"It certainly is not Christian to spend so much time and money on pleasure as some people in society spend. Pleasure is right and God wants us to have happy, joyful times, but it certainly is not Christian for people to go night after night to receptions and parties and theaters and balls and concerts with out ever visiting the poor, caring for the distressed, or helping lift the burdens of a sinful world. I know a woman who mover in society a good deal who was asked one day for her membership fee to some benevolent organization to which she belonged. ‘Oh,' she said to the visitor who had come for the money, ‘I really cannot pay that now. I cannot afford it. You will have to come again at the end of the month.' The next caller was a lady friend, and the society woman began to show her three new dresses that she had just received from New York. The least expensive of them cost one hundred and fifty dollars. That evening with two friends she attended an opera at an expense of four dollars and a half. When the poor humble visitor calls for the five dollar fee at the end of the month that society woman will give it to her but she will feel as it it was so much money thrown away and she will at the same time feel as if she had done her part for the benevolence of the district and proceed to spend five dollars for something she doesn't need just because it is pretty. There are hundreds and thousands of people in this city who spend their whole lives in going to parties or entertainments. If they go to visit the poor they go because it is a fad to visit the poor. Their whole lives are given up to pleasure. If such a use of time and money is Christian then I do not know what Christian is. Of course it is not Christian. Think of the sewing girls getting less than three dollars a week wages, living in attics, going to ruin because of the devilish competition of the money makers, and then ask yourself if God has not some other and higher uses for humanity and money than the wicked waste of them in selfish pleasures day after day. This is the righteous condemnation of much of society. That it is not spending its time and money where it is most needed but on itself in a continual round of personal pleasures that do not relieve the wants of the world not make those who seek after pleasure any better able or any more willing to relieve distress or make the world better. Society will have a good deal to answer for at the last great day, not for being criminal or licentious or brutal or wicked, but for an awful waste of two of God's most precious gifts, time and money."

Question. "Isn't it true that money can buy almost any thing?"

"No. It's power is very limited. It can't buy the most valuable and beautiful things in the world. It cannot buy brains, nor common sense, nor virtue, nor character, nor forgiveness of sins, nor love, nor eternal life, nor peace of conscience, nor freedom from death. The purchasing power of money is exceedingly limited. It can buy a great deal that is good as well as a great deal that is bad. It can build churches as well as saloons. It can build colleges and endow them as well as erect houses for gambling and vice. But it is powerless to buy the endless things that depend on the eternal character of man. The power of money is seen by what it cannot buy, not by what it can buy."

Question. "Is a Christian necessarily perfect?"

"No. That is not the definition of a Christian, if by Christian you mean a person who never does anything wrong, who is sinless. A Christian is one who is trying to be like Christ. He is constantly growing better. But he is not necessarily as good as he can be now. He has a great deal to learn and is far from perfection."

Question. "What do you think is most in need of reforming in the political life of our country?"

"The intense partisanship, which gives rise to a host of evils like the spoils system and unholy alliances with the whisky power and the great trusts in order to gain party votes. If it were not for the narrow partisanship of our political life we night have some hope of municipal reform and a getting together of all good men regardless of party for the common good. But as long as church members and saloon keepers and gamblers all go the polls and vote the same ticket, what is going to be done to purify the body politic? And as long as men go into political life for the spoils of office and regard a good fat salary in the public pay as so much just reward for their political services, where are the statesmanship and patriotism which alone can preserve a nation in righteousness? The horde of hungry office seekers at every change of state or national party administration is a living illustration of one of the greatest evils of our political life. And it all comes from a partisanship that puts success of the party above every other consideration. There are thousands of men in this country who believe more in their party than in their church. They will give more money and more time and more enthusiasm to their party than they ever give to their church. It can be truly said of such men they are more partisan than Christian."

Question. "How do you account for the increase of lynch law in this country?"

"A great deal of it is no doubt due to a growing contempt of the courts and a feeling of distrust as to justice being done owing to many failures to convict and punish the guilty. Then there is also without doubt a laxness among the people, especially in some sections of the country which is due to a lack of self restraint taught by Christian training. In very many sections, the religious influences have of late years been fewer. The black and white in large regions are growing up in ignorance of pure Christianity and foreign immigration of the lawless element has added to the peril already existing. There is no remedy for this state of things except a complete regeneration of society through the Christianizing of it in every particular."

Question. "Should a young girl from fifteen to seventeen years old keep company with a young man regularly?"

"A young girl from fifteen to seventeen years old ought to be keeping company with a good high school or academy or college. A young girl of that age who is regularly thinking about the young men or allowing them to keep regular company with her ought to have some good advice from a good mother or father. Or if she has good common sense herself she will see that she ought to be giving her undivided attention to an education, or if for any good reason she cannot go to school, the time between fifteen and seventeen ought to be used as years of preparation for the duties of home life. Of course there are exceptions. Women have been courted and married at seventeen and have made excellent wives and mothers, but as a general thing with the average girl or young woman it is quite safe to say that between fifteen and seventeen she ought not to be keeping regular company with any young man. She ought to be giving the strength and thought of those years to intellectual development, undisturbed by sentimental or foolish or premature love affairs."

Question. "How much of my income ought I to give to benevolence?"

"How large is your income? What are your obligations? How much do you owe? Who is dependent on you? I don't know your circumstances. I cannot answer your question definitely. You will have to determine the amount yourself from a consideration of all the facts in your own case, your ability, your opportunities, your responsibility. If you have a large income you probably ought to give a good deal."

Question. "What is the greatest temptation to young men in this age and country?"

"The temptation to place physical and intellectual or political or financial power in the first place in his ambition to become some one or do something. These are fout great gods of the national world most young men fall down and worship. And the greatest temptation before them lies in their worshiping these powers so constantly that they forget the God of all the earth and heaven, their relation to him as immortal souls and the value of the spiritual as compared with the temporal. The great temptation to all young men lies along this particular line. The exaltation and glorification of the material and the ignoring or despising of the spiritual or eternal."

When Victoria and Rachel reached home that evening Victoria asked Rachel how she enjoyed the Question Class.

"It was splendid!" replied Rachel with an enthusiasm not commonly shown by her.

Victoria was pleased.

"I thought you would like it; the people are so interesting, too, when you come to know them."

"Who was the gentleman we met when we first went in? The one who was talking with the minister?"

"That was Mr. Bruce. He is quite a famous author."

"And his friend, as you said, the one whose right hand is missing, Mr. Howard, what is he?"

"Oh, he is a newspaper man. He has charge of one department in Mr. King's new paper."

They talked along a little while about different things said, and discussed some of the questions and answers. At last, after a pause, Victoria said, "Do you know, Rachel, it seems a mystery to me that people can go on giving so much of their thought to little things when the world is so full of human misery. That was the question that touched me most tonight. That one about society spending so much time and money on pleasure."

"I think perhaps that made me think as much as any. But I don't see, Victoria, how I can do very much to help matters any. You are sacrificing something every day. I wish I could do something."

"You do. I need you. That may be selfish. But I feel the need of just what you have brought to me."

Rachel was silent awhile. Then she said almost timidly,

"Sometime you will not be satisfied with what I can give you. I will not be what you ought to have."

"Why not?" asked Victoria innocently. Then she suddenly seemed to understand what Rachel meant. She went over by the side of Rachel and kneeling down by her side, said with the most charming affection in tone and manner,

"Dear, strange as it may seem to you I have never had a lover. I think it is because my life has been too busy to ‘keep regular company' with any one."

"But you are more than seventeen," said Rachel demurely.

"More that seventeen! Why I am going on twenty-four. No, no, Rachel, you must not be afraid I am going to leave you on that account. I have no room for any one but you and father and Victor and my violin. That is as much as a little body like me can manage." And so their talk ended that night.

The weeks went by and still there was little change in the condition of Mr. Stanwood. Finally one evening when Victoria was at a concert and Rachel was watching by the sick man the great change came. It was so sudden that Rachel was frightened. The doctor was sent for in great haste. But before he could reach the house the frail, sin-smitten diseased body had yielded up its spirit. There had been a gleam of consciousness at the last, just the murmuring of his children's names and that was all. Victoria was sent for and left the concert hall knowing that a crisis was at hand. She was not prepared, however, for the end at once. It came to her like a sudden blow. She reproached herself for not being at her father's side, although no one could have foreseen how or when the end would come.

Rachel was worth everything to Victoria at this time. She showed unexpected resources of strength. Victoria wished the news sent to Victor. She would cable to London. She sent the brief message, "Father died last evening," and directed it to the care of the manager of the company with which Victor was engaged. It would be more likely to reach him that way.

An answer to the cable came the next morning. When it was brought in by Rachel, Victoria was standing by the coffin that contained the body of her father. She took the message and read it, "Victor supposed to be on the Continent. Left my company charged with gambling and forgery."

Surely Victoria's cup of sorrow was a full one. Even Rachel could not help her at this moment. The girl shut the door softly and went out, leaving Victoria alone with her dead, and with her God.

~ end of chapter 10 ~